


Very Superstitious Writings on the Wall

by TheBardsCipher



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: BSed Magic, Curses, Dancing, Della's here because Donald is on the moon, Like no joke there's a lot, Probably OOC But Oh Well, The Scottish Play, Theater - Freeform, When I bother this is Beta read by my mom, Will add tags as I update, Witches, first multichapter fic in a while, look this fic is very self indulgent and its fanfic so I do what I want, mostly...okay there's a small scratch, so the blood is fake, special effects makeup, starts off slow but we'll get there I promise, the typical type of supernatural chaos that happens in the show, this ties into my musical theater Lena stuff, what's an update schedule??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 23:18:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19261177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBardsCipher/pseuds/TheBardsCipher
Summary: The children decide to participate in the local Children's Theater Camp. What could possibly go wrong? It's not like someone could accidentally curse the theater or anything.





	1. Auditions

Lena was sitting on the floor along with Webby and Huey. Between them a board with a map and tiny rectangles in a spiderweb like formation across it sat between them. She looked at the card in her hands. Three blues, two pinks, five whites, and three blacks. She glanced to the cards on to her side, London to Sochi, London to Athina, Wien to Roma, and Roma to Angora, and then back to the board. She tossed her two pinks down.

“Two pinks for Frankfurt to Munchen,” she said.

Huey hummed in acknowledgment and took her two cards off the board before placing them into the discard pile. “Alright, lay your cars...” he said. He picked up her black piece and moved it two dots along the edges.

Lena dug into a plastic bag to her side and pulled out two small, plastic train cars and laid them on the two pink rectangles she had traded her cards for.

Webby was up next. She looked at her cards. “Two off the top please!” She grabbed the two cards Huey had drawn off the draw pile.

The door swung open suddenly. “LENA!!” Dewey called out.

Lena jumped, the cards in her hands flying into the air and the board pushing forward a couple inches as her foot kicked it, a couple cars tipping over. “Can you not yell my name?” She asked as she turned to look at him.

Dewey beamed as he got everyone's attention. “I just thought you'd like to know what I found at the grocery store,” he said as he held up a rolled up paper.

Lena tilted her head. “Cheat notes on how to have a normal conversation that doesn't involve playing guessing games?”

Dewey rolled his eyes. “No. I promise you might like it!”

Lena sighed and held out her hands. “Give it to me Little Boy Blue...”

Dewey couldn't stop that grin that speak across his beak as he handed Lena the paper and she unrolled it.

“Children's Theater Camp: Peter Pan.” Lena said.

Webby beamed. “I love Peter Pan! What week!”

Lena looked over the flyer. “Looks like the last week of July. Auditions are in a week if I'm remembering the date right.”

Huey raised an eyebrow. “How much and where?”

Lena hummed. “Thirty dollars for the first kid in the family, twenty-five for any kids after that. However, if there's a volunteer adult from the family it goes to Twenty dollars first kid and fifteen for any kids after that. Also, it looks like its being held at the local high school.”

Huey shrugged. “We'll have to ask Uncle Scrooge if you're interested...”

Dewey bounced. “Well, I'm interested! Are any of you?”

Webby smiled. “It sounds like it could be a lot of fun!”

Lena sat there thinking. “Yeah, I think I might enjoy doing this...” She said. She looked back at Huey. “What about you Little Red?”

Huey shrugged. “It's be a good excuse to get my Acting badge. I might even find it quite fun!”

Lena stood up. “Well, then let's go ask Scrooge! We can pick this up later.”

They ran out the room and headed towards Scrooge's office.

~

Scrooge looked the flyer over. He then looked at the four kids in front of him and then up at Della, who was standing to his side. “And all four of you want to do this?”

“Yes!”

“Yeah!”

“Yep!”

“It could be fun!”

Scrooge looked over the flyer again. “Well, Louie will have to go if you four are gonna go. I don't want to deal with him complaining about being bored all by himself,” He grumbled. He then turned to face Della. “And you'll have to volunteer. I am not spending that much money. Besides, it'll give you a break from all the stress our research is doing.”

Della shrugged. “Sure! Why not! I don't have a lot of experience with plays but I'm sure I could be useful somewhere else...like building sets. That's a thing they do for these type of things right?”

Scrooge hummed and set the flyer down on his desk. “Alright! You guys can do this, but you guys better make it worth the amount of money I'll be spending.”

The kids in front of him cheered and Scrooge couldn't help the small smile that grew.

~

They stood in front of the high school, sorta. It turned out that the high school had a second building that was used for performance arts and certain sports. Lena stared up at the building. Her heat pounding in her chest from the nervous energy she felt.

“Now everyone's practiced the songs they picked out right?” Della asked.

Everyone nodded their heads, except for Louie. “Oh no, I forgot...” he said sarcastically.

Della ruffled Louie's feathers on the top of his head. “I'm sure they'll have something for you to sing there,” she said.

Louie threw his head back. “Yay me...” he muttered.

Just as they were arriving at the doors, they swung open and a family of ducks exited. The two little kids turned to wave at the person who held the door open. “BYE AVA!” They called out.

There holding the door was a loon. She wore a blue dress with a white crop top with pink and green stripes over it. Her curly black and white hair was covered by a blue beanie. In her arms sat a younger raven with short hair in a purple dress. “See you guys next month!” The loon called out.

Louie snorted.

The loon turned her head in their direction. “Oh! Are you guys here for the auditions?” She asked.

Della nodded her head. “Yep!”

The loon smiled. “Follow me!” She held the door as they entered the building. Lena and the others followed the loon and the small raven across the large foyer into a very wide long hallway.

The loon glanced down at the raven in her arms. “How have you gotten so heavy?” She asked.

The raven kicked her legs, which were dangling behind the loon. “I'm seven now, duh.”

The loon hummed. “Alright, but I gotta get back to work,” she said, before looking back at Della and the kids. “Try out are in the band room this year. The choir room got its carpets deep cleaned this week and it stinks.” She turned into another hallway before setting the young raven down and opening a door.

Webby smiled at the loon before heading into the room.

Near the front of the classroom was a circle of chairs with a wide open space in the center. There were several people already in the chairs. In three close together was another loon, who looked older than the one who they had already met who's black and white hair was tied in a braid and was dressed in a white sweater with something written across it, an adult raven who's black hair was tied in a bun and was dressed in a white dress and a green kimono cardigan, and an adult duck who was heavier and dressed in a black t-shirt. Scattered around the circle were two more loons who both appeared younger than the one they met, the boy was dressed in a pink t-shirt and the girl was dressed in a white button down shirt and cat eye sunglasses with her white hair pulled into a slick bun, and two more ravens, the oldest had her black hair down loose and was dressed in a white off the sleeve shirt and dark purple skirt and the younger one had her black hair in two braids and was dressed in a dark green t-shirt with a rainbow on it and some brown shorts.

The adult raven looked up from her notebook. “Oh! I haven't seen you guys before,” she said said. “Come sit down in the circle and we can get started right away! Rosa, you're gonna have to do your auditions soon! Stop hanging onto Ava and let her get back to work!”

The little raven groaned. “But mom!” She had hold of the loon's hand and was swinging her arm around.

The loon laughed. “How about we go sit down with your sisters. Look, there's room by Rowan!” They moved to sit by the raven in the green shirt.

Della led the kids over and had them sit down. Louie and Dewey sat on either side of Della, with Huey on the other side of Louie and Webby next to Dewey. Lena went and sat by Webby.

The raven looked up at them and smiled. “I'm Mrs. Raven, I'm the theater teacher at this school and the director of the play. Have any of you guys done a play before?”

All the kids shook their heads.

Mrs. Raven smiled. “Ah, I love new comers. It won't be an easy task since we're putting it all together in one week instead of several like the high school students do, but this is the fourth one I've done and the lady before me did several more so it's possible. Auditioning may be one of the harder parts, but also one of the easier parts. All you really have to do is say your name, sing a small part of a song and then read some lines, and maybe do some voices and acting, but it can be really scary if you've never acted before. So we'll just go one at a time and take it as it comes.” Mrs. Raven looked to the sides. “Jace, Cass, are you both ready?”

The duck and older Loon nodded their heads.

Mrs. Raven looked towards the group sitting there. “Okay, who wants to go first?”

The kids looked at each other. “I'll go first,” Lena said as they silently agreed on it. She stood up and stepped into the center of the circle. There was an odd energy as she stood there, but she suspected that it was just nerves. She took a deep, shaky breath and faced Mrs. Raven. “I'm Lena McDuck.” She asked.

Mrs. Raven smiled. “And what shall you be singing for us Lena?”

Lena nervously rock her feet. “Uh, I'll be singing Pulled from The Addams Family Musical.” She took a deep breath and she sang the first part. Afterwords, she was handed a small part of the script and she read certain lines before acting out sneaking around and doing a sword fight.

Mrs. Raven beamed. “That was excellent. Are there any roles you'd like to have and any roles you would dread having?”

Lena thought for a second. “No not really...”

Mrs. Raven nodded. “And just like that, you're finished! Who's next!”

Lena went to sit down as Webby hopped up. Lena slumped back into her chair and decided that that wasn't nearly as nerve wracking as she thought it would be.

Webby was quickly done and was followed after Dewey, Huey, and then Louie. There was a slight delay as Mrs. Raven tried to convince Louie to sing, ending with him singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

Mrs Raven smirked at Louie. “Any role you'd like?” She asked at the end of his audition.

“Is there a role without any lines to memorize?” He asked.

“Mmm, there's Peter's shadow, the crocodile, and Tinkerbell only has one or two lines...” Mrs. Raven said with a mischievous smirk at the end.

Louie's brothers laughed behind him. “Make him Tinkerbell!” Dewey called.

The loon from earlier giggled. “I'm sure there's plenty of little girls who'd like to be Tinkerbell...”

“Doesn't the shadow cause a lot of trouble?” Louie asked.

Mrs. Raven nodded her head. “Yeah, it's a whole lot of body language and dramatic movements.”

Louie nodded his head. “The shadow sounds pretty cool...”

Mrs. Raven quickly took a note. “Excellent,” she said. She waited until Louie was seated to speak again. “Now Della, do you plan on volunteering?”

Della nodded her head. “I'm not sure how much help I'd be with anything play related, but I wouldn't mind helping with building the set and watching kids if I need to.”

Mrs. Raven smiled. “That sounds great! That'll get you ten dollars off each kid. If you just come here to pay. Ava! You could give the kids a tour of the building and what room will be for what!”

The loon from earlier stood up, untangling herself from the two ravens who were playing rock, paper, scissors over her. “I'd be glad to!”

Della waved the kids off. “Go have fun!”

Dewey and Webby were the first ones up. They dashed after the loon, with Lena, Huey and Louie not far behind.

“So, are you Ava?” Webby asked. She skipped besides the loon.

“Bingo! You're pretty observant,” the loon said.

“So, did you audition already or something?” Dewey asked.

“Nah, I'm too old for children's theater camp. I help around with costuming and props and keeping you chaotic kids from destroying the building. This year I'll be directing a couple scenes though,” Ava said. She opened the door back out to the hallway for them. “This is the band room by the way, this room is where we'll be practicing the big ensemble songs. Usually there's one at the beginning and the end and maybe one in the middle. Next to this room is the choir room. Usually we practice scenes in there. Now if you follow me.” She led them back into the first hallway they were in. “That big room you entered when you first came in is called the foyer. That's where we will eat lunch...maybe. We haven't quite figured that out yet, but that's also a good place to play games when you have nothing to do.” She led them the opposite direction, ending at a room at the end of the hallway. She pushed open the door.

They entered a classroom. It was full of desks and on the wall furthest from them was a row of mirrors in between two doors.

“What's this place?” Louie asked.

“Is it the theater classroom?” Huey asked.

Ava smiled. “Correct! It's the drama classroom. This will be the room that you go to each morning so you can drop your stuff of. It's basically a home base for the entire week. Your costumes will be here and you can come in here if you're not doing anything if you'd like a more quieter place to relax instead of the foyer. I'm usually camped in here if I'm not busy.” She led them through and pointed at the door on the right of the wall. “That's the costume closet. It's usually transformed for a dressing room for the girls, though you can use the bathrooms just down the hall if you'd like. The boy's dressing room is in the shop, which is where we're off too in a second.” She then pointed to a door on the wall to their left. “That leads out to the stage, but we'll go there after the shop...” She pushed open the door that hadn't been labeled yet.

They entered into a room with a cement floor and brick walls. Several of the bricks were painted with names and designs. There were two large tables shoved up against the wall next to them and two more more towards the center. On the wall furthest from them were huge pieces of wood and scenery. On the wall to their left there was another door, plus a huge set of garage doors. The same with the wall to their right. Also on the wall to their right were huge shelves filled with all sorts of tools. Right next to them were a couple shelves and a long piece of fabric forming a small room. “Its not as nice as the area the girls change into, but some high school boys threw it together so its something. Again, if you'd rather change in the bathroom, you can...” Ava said.

“So what do people do in the shop?” Dewey asked.

“They build a lot of props or set pieces. We plan on building a pirate ship and this is the room it'll happen. It's also where we store stuff to build with,” Ava explained.

Webby bounced. “You're gonna build a pirate ship!”

“Well, its not gonna be a real one or all that big, but enough for it to be, you know, recognizable as a pirate ship...”

Lena folded her arms. “That'll be fun,” she said.

Dewey smiled. “Can we come help?”

Ava shrugged. “Maybe, if your mom is gonna help.”

Dewey cheered. “Yes!”

Ava smirked. “Alright, who's ready for the best room in the building?”

All the kids cheered.

Ava led them to the door on the left wall and held it open for the kids to run in.

All the kids looked around. There were curtains tied up and curtains hanging down and ropes hanging all around. On the wall across from the door was a panel of electrical stuff. Everything was black except for a red curtain. “Where are we?” Louie asked.

Ava walked in. “Currently the right wing. But if you carefully push past those curtains...” she said.

The kids quickly ran onto the stage. They gasped as they looked around. They could see all of the chairs in the audience with the lights on. Behind them was a big white fabric hanging from above. Up above them they could see countless lights.

“It's so big!” Webby said excitedly.

Lena pointed to the wall across from them up at a long window high above. “Is that the light booth?” She asked.

Ava nodded her head. “Exactly! And over there is the sound booth.” She said as she pointed to a small table with a huge sound board on it in the audience.

Lena smiled and looked up at Ava. “This place is so cool!”

Ava nodded. “I'm gonna teach you some theater terms so you can be ahead in the game alright.” She waited until the majority of the kids nodded their heads. “All those chairs out there where the audience sits, that's called the house. So if we tell you to go sit in the house, you'll sit out there.” Ava moved so she was standing directly in the center. “This is center stage, now going with how everything is placed around me, in front of me is downstage and behind me is upstage, to my right is stage right and to my left is stage left. Its all relative to the actor not the audience.”

Lena walked around and tapped on a piece of the stage that was different than the wood that the stage was mostly made of. “Is this the apron?”

Ava smiled. “Yep!”

Webby ran forward and grabbed Lena's hand. “Come dance with me on the stage!” She said as she spun with Lena, causing Lena to laugh.

“You can't have a dance party on the stage without us!” A voice shouted from the front of the room. There standing by one of the two doors on the far wall was a group of children, three ravens and two loons.

“Besides you guys need to go home!” The boy loon shouted.

“Of course they can stay a little longer,” the youngest raven said as she ran down the aisle. She quickly ran up the stairs that led to the stage and jumped at Ava. She turned to looked at the others. “Hi! I'm Rosa!”

Webby waved. “Hi Rosa! I'm Webby!”

Ava laughed. “Hey Roxy! Can you take these kids back to their mother!”

The oldest raven nodded her head. “Alright, she just out in the foyer!”

Ava smiled. “Roxy will take you back to your mom. She's the raven in the white shirt. The oldest one over there...”

Webby whined. “Ah, but we wanted to dance and have fun!”

Ava laughed. “We'll have plenty of time to dance on the stage later. Can't wait to see you again soon.”

Lena looked at Ava. “When do we find out who we are?”

Ava thought for a second. “We have a few kids who couldn't make it today, so they have a few days to send their tryouts by email, then we'll look at the notes from the tryouts and decide who's who. You should know by the end of next week.”

Dewey bounced where he stood. “Sweet!”

Webby smiled. “Thanks!” She grabbed Lena's hand and led her off the stage.

As they were leaving Louie stuck his head back into the room. “Remember! I don't want a speaking part! The crocodile sounds cool but the shadow sounds best!”

Lena couldn't see Ava's face but she could hear the laugh and smile. “Alright! I got it kid!”

Della looked at the kids. “So how was that?” She met Lena's eyes and gave her a big smile.

Lena smiled back. “It was pretty fun! I'm pretty excited.”

Louie shrugged. “Better than I expected. I hope I'm the shadow.”

Webby beamed. “That Ava girl seems really cool!”

Lena laughed. “She was certainly something!” Lena looked back at the building and that's when she noticed the odd energy from earlier was gone.

And with that the auditions were over.

 


	2. Costumes

Louie hunched forward, the game remote hidden from view of his brothers and Lena, who was sitting next to him. “Can this bike be any slower!”

Dewey leaned away from Louie and nearly into Huey's lap causing Huey to lift his remote into the air. “Well, you were the one to offer the bike only challenge. It's not our fault you picked terrible wheels!” Dewey said.

“Yeah, you have to check the stats...” Huey commented as he pushed Dewey out of his lap.

“Oh can it you two,” Louie said. He stared intently on the screen before them. On it were four evenly divided squares, each one centered on a different bike. Louie was currently in fifth place.

Lena had wedged herself next to the armrest. She ignored the commotion caused by the boys and focused on the game in front of her. Her bike crossed the finished line. “Yes!” She cheered.

Webby, who had been sitting on the arm rest of the couch, high-fived Lena. “You won!”

Louie looked over at Lena. “How?”

Lena shrugged. “Because I have skill and you nerds don't.”

Della peeked into the room. “Louie, could you come help me check my email on this phone again. I don't often get mail so I forgot...”

Louie stood up and walked over. He quickly showed her and she thanked him before waving him back to his game. She then left the room.

Lena smirked. “Could you even get email on your cell phone ten years ago?” She asked.

The boys shrugged.

“Kids!” Della called out.

They all set their remotes down and ran towards where Della was.

“Where's the monster!” Dewey called out excitedly. He had his fists raised.

Della laughed. “Oh there's no monster! The email with your roles is here! Oh! And the script, we'll have to print a couple copies out later today,” she said.

Webby ran over and stood on her tip-toes to see the phone.

Della smiled and held it down so Webby could see. “Let's see here. Lena, you are Tootles, a Lost Boy. Webby, you are Tinkerbell, oh that'll be fun! Dewey, you are Smee number two and a background pirate, Smee must be a big part with a lot of lines if they separated him into two parts. Huey, you are John Darling, oh you've got a big lead role! And Louie you are Peter's Shadow, the perfect role for you.”

Webby cheered. “I get to be Tink!” She quickly grabbed Lena's hands and spun in a circle.

Lena laughed. “That sounds like you'll have a lot of fun! I'm ready to cause some chaos as a lost boy!”

Huey smiled. “I wasn't expecting that big of a role!” He said.

Dewey nudged him. “You'll do great! Besides, I get to be Smee!”

Louie smiled. “Have fun memorizing lines.”

Della ruffled Louie's feathers on the top of his head. “Yeah, but you'll have to express your emotions and intent through other means. The shadow is a pretty important character if I remember correctly,” she said.

Louie shrugged. “I'm pretty excited too surprisingly,” he said.

Della smiled. “Let's go see if we can sneak off to the Money Bin and use one of the many printers there...”

~

Louie watched as Webby and Dewey ran between the seats at the amphitheater. “So, uh, Lena?”

“Yeah?” Lena called out from the hole in the floor. She and Huey had gone down to see what little furniture that was left underneath would be easy to move so they could practice with props.

“Why are we practicing here? Wouldn't it be just as easy to memorize your lines at the Manor?” Louie asked as he peered down into the hole.

Lena peeked her head out from the first room, which was where she used to stay. “Because it's useful to practice projecting and I figured that since you don't have any lines you could sit out in the audience and tell us if you can hear us...”

Louie tilted his head. “What?”

Lena sighed. “If you can't hear us when we say our lines then the audience won't hear us when we say our lines. That's why we need to practice projecting. We can't really practice that at the manor without getting told we're being too loud so I figured we could do it here. Besides we're by the ocean and I figured if we can be heard over the waves, than we'll probably be fine in an actual theater building...”

Louie shrugged. “Makes sense I guess...” He walked down the stairs to peer into Lena's old hide-out. All that was really left was the old mattress, a single table, a small pile of ratty and mossy blankets, and the mini-fridge that they were never quite sure what to do with. “Anything useful in here?” He asked as he carefully stepped over a pile of rocks.

“I was tempted to try bringing up the bed so we could practice the second scene, but I don't want to carry it up the stairs...” Lena said. “Also if we carry that table up, I'm taking it home and I'm sure Scrooge doesn't want to deal with more junk in my room,” she said.

Louie nodded his head and hummed. He glanced at Huey. “What're you doing?”

“Trying to figure out how we could carry the table and mattress up the stairs...” Huey said.

Lena sighed and rolled her head. “Alright fine, we'll take the mattress up, Louie come help...” She grumbled. Lena walked over and took one end of the mattress while Huey took the other and Louie took the center as soon as they lifted the mattress up. Lena carefully lead them up the stairs.

When they dropped the mattress in the center of the stage, Lena closed the trap door. “Alright you two lets start practicing!”

Webby, Huey, and Louie started practicing first. Lena sat on one of the center deck and read out lines and Dewey sat in the audience. As time went on they would switch places, Louie would give lines sometimes and sometimes it was Dewey. Webby often was dashing through the audience yelling if a line needed to be louder.

“Wait, so Tinkerbell gets poisoned! I don't remember that!” Louie exclaimed as they were nearing the end of the script.

Webby nodded from where she was sitting near the center of the stage. “Yep! And then the audience has to clap to bring her back to life!”

Lena laughs from the one of the decks to the side. “Did you not know that?” She asked.

“No! Where does Hook even poison him at! I can't find it anywhere in my script...” He muttered.

All the children sat there for a second. “Huh...”

Webby shrugged. “It does say that the script may have last minute changes if Mrs. Avis notices anything they missed when they were editing the script. I'm sure that will be fixed.”

Lena flipped through the script. “Or it could be in the blocking we're ignoring...”

Louie looked up. “Blocking?”

“The italics in the brackets that are big paragraphs,” Lena explained. She stretched. “Can we continue? Huey, Dewey, clap!”

Huey and Dewey both clapped and Webby spread her arms out. “I'M ALIVE!”

Lena and Louie both bursted out laughing so hard that they tipped over.

~

That weekend, they headed back to the high school to try on different costume pieces. When Lena pushed open the drama classroom door she could see piles of clothes and fabric piled high on the counter near the mirrors. Several boxes of clothes and fabrics were in the front near the dry erase board in the front of the classroom. There were little bits of fabric all around the floor.

There sitting at one of the desks sat Rosa and Rowan. Mrs. Raven was sorting out one of the piles by the mirrors and the older Loon was sitting on the floor sorting out what looked like animal print fabrics. The Loon looked up when Lena and the others walked in.

“Oh! You're the McDuck crew aren't you!” She said as she pushed herself up. She walked over. “I'm Mrs. Avis, Ava's mom and Sandy and Carl's Aunt. I'm helping with the costumes. Let's see here...” she hummed a little bit. “We've got a Lost Boy, Tinkerbell, Smee and a background pirate, John, and Shadow correct?”

The kids looked at each other and then back at Mrs. Avis. “Yeah...that's one hundred percent correct...” Huey said in amazement.

Mrs. Avis smiled and waved to Webby to follow her. “I stole one of Ava's skirts for Tinkerbell. She bought it at our local market a couple weeks ago and I thought it would work perfectly! It can slip right over your current skirt so don't worry about that.” She led Webby over to Mrs. Raven's desk and grabbed a green and gold petal skirt. There were several markings on certain panels that were sewn out of sky blue thread.

Webby gasped as she gently touched it. “It's so pretty. It looks like a real fairy skirt!” She looked up at Mrs. Avis. “What are we doing for my fairy wings?” She asked excitedly.

Mrs. Avis shrugged. “We're still figuring that out. We found a pair of green fairy wings up in the prop room, but they're meant for kids Rosa's age so they might not work. I could make a pair out tights and wire if need be though. I can get Ava to help me. Now, Mrs. Raven has an idea for your top so you can go talk to her about that.”

Webby nodded her head and ran off.

Mrs. Avis turned to the rest. “Shadow, we'll talk to you about your costume in a second. John there's some night robes over on the center desks you can try on and pick your favorite. If none work come talk to either me or Mrs. Raven. Smee, come here!” Mrs. Avis walked over to a section of the counter by the mirrors and pulled out a stack of striped shirts. She dug out four blue and white striped crop tops. “Pull one of these on over your shirt. Let's find one that fits. Then lets find you a red scarf and then other pirate accessories...”

Dewey started trying on shirts.

Mrs. Avis walked towards Lena. “Ava has assigned each of the lost boys an animal, so you'll need to figure out which animal you are before I can actually do your outfit. She should be out on the stage with Sandy and Carl. They might be practicing their dance for the Midsummer festival tonight though, so be careful. It can get kinda...wild.” Mrs. Avis turned to Louie. “Shadow! With me!”

Louie shrugged and followed after. He glanced at Lena as he passed by. His eyes drifting to the door that led to the stage and then drifted back to Lena, his eyebrows raised a bit. Lena shrugged back in response.

Webby skipped over, over her usual top was a billowy green long sleeve shirt that tied in a “v” at the collar. She was still wearing the petal skirt. “Where's your costume?”

“Mrs. Avis says I need to talk to Ava about that. Wanna come interrupt a dance with me?” Lena asked. She smirked towards Webby and ran her hand through her pink bangs.

Webby beamed. “Oh! Can we watch first! I wanna see Ava dance!”

Lena laughed. “Sure, but then we'll interrupt,” she said. She took Webby's hand and led her through the stage door. The second Lena stepped onto the stage, she felt a strange energy in the room. Similar to the one she felt during auditions, but stronger, much stronger.

They could hear music as they opened the door. They silently slinked through the curtains. They stopped where they were as soon as they spotted Ava and the two younger loons, Sandy and Carl. Each were wearing a long green jacket with different colored embroidery along the sleeves, collars, hems, and belts.

Currently Carl was up front and center. He was skipping side to side and waving his left hand in the air as if holding a sword. The lyrics of the currently playing verse seemed to be about a soldier. As the verse ended he skipped backwards and lifted his right arm to meet up in the center of a circle with Ava's and Sandy's. They slowly walked in a circle.

Ava was next to be front and center. Her movements seemed to flow perfectly with each other and she skipped and spun and lifted her arms in the air before swinging them back down. Her verse seemed to be about a poet. She too went back into the center circle when she was done.

Sandy went into the front next. Her verse was about a ruler and she skipped and tapped her toes quickly. Her arms were behind her back, only coming out to be spread out as she spun towards the end of her bit. However, instead of Sandy going back towards the center circle, Ava and Carl shuffled up to the front and took each of Sandy's out stretched hands.

They pulled out, came back together, and then pulled out again. They did another little shuffling step before they did two jumping kicks in the air.

With that the music started to pick up and go faster and so did the three dancers. They weaved and turned around each other. At times they'd go back to that center circle and walk before spinning out of it and going back to weaving. When they met in the center for the ending, they grabbed their hands and started weaving underneath each other's arms before finally they let go and turned around so they were facing out. The first to crouch down and pose was Carl, who posed to look like he was pointing a sword forward, then Ava who looked like she was holding a book, then Sandy who set her hands on her head like holding a crown. They then moved their hands back down to their sides and then knelt down repeating the poses only backwards. At the last note, they reached out and grabbed hands again.

Webby cheered, which made Ava look up in their direction. “Oh! Are you here for your costumes?” Ava said as she broke herself from the circle. The second she did, the strange energy Lena was feeling lessened.

Lena nodded her head. “Your mom says you assigned each lost boy an animal. She sent me to find you.”

Ava ran over and then leaned back a bit and waved at somebody in the audience. “I'll be back in a bit Jonathan! You can unplug my phone from the sound board if you'd like!”

Lena and Webby peeked around the curtain to see who Ava was waving at. There near the sound booth was a male puffin wearing a blue flannel shirt.

“Alright! You want me to watch the twerps for you?” He called out.

Ava smiled. “I'd love it! Make sure they don't cause trouble! I want to be there for it! It's Midsummer after all!” She called out. She turned back towards Webby and Lena and waved for them to follow her. From here they could now see the embroidery on her jacket. They were small sky blue flowers and bigger purple flowers with white dots.

Webby followed after, still holding Lena's hand, and Lena looked up at Ava curiously. “What's so important about Midsummer?” Webby asked.

Ava smirked. “It's Mischief Night!”

Lena squinted her eyes as she watched Ava carefully. “'I thought that was Halloween?”

Ava opened the door to the classroom. “All nights like that is Mischief Night! The veil is thin...or however you want to phrase it. Anyways my family and my family's close friends like have a big party. I try to cause as much chaos as I can,” she said.

Mrs. Avis walked by at that moment. “You better not steal any signs this year and use them to make your own personal bonfire! Now what animal is Tootles!”

Ava smiled. “Ah come on! That was fun and you knew exactly where I got it from! It was clever! A joke only certain people got! Also, skunk!”

Lena shrugged. “Skunk's are kinda cool. Also, what's this about stealing signs?”

Ava smiled and opened her mouth to respond but her mother interrupted. “Don't get her started. She'll get ideas and I'd like ONE party that didn't involve her and her cousins starting trouble...”

Ava playfully gasped, bringing her hand to her chest. “But mom, that goes against our nature! Anyways, I found some no trespassing signs on so-” She was cut off as Rosa grabbed her arm and swung it.

“You're in the flower jacket! What flowers are they again?” Rosa said excitedly.

Ava beamed down at Rosa. She pointed to one of the sky blue flowers. “These ones are Forget-Me-Nots and the purple and white ones are Night Sky Petunias. You should go ask Sandy and Carl about theirs!”

Rosa gasped and ran out onto the stage, Rowan quickly dashed after her.

Mrs. Avis rolled her eyes. “Alright, Tootles, come with me. Ava, go grab your cousins and tell them to try on their costumes!”

Ava bowed. “Yes Ma'am!” She quickly darted out the room.

Lena followed after Mrs. Avis and sat quietly as she watched her dig out all sorts of black, grey, and white fabrics.

Mrs. Avis soon came across a black fuzzy hat with a white stripe running down it. “I knew we had a hat like this. Try this on,” she said as she passed it over to Lena.

Lena pulled it on. “Well it fits,” she said. She titled her head side to side. She then looked back as Ava, Sandy, and Carl walked in. From here she could see the embroidery on Carl's jacket was red and a lighter green than his jacket, and Sandy's was pale pink and that same green color.

Mrs. Avis smiled and pulled the hat off of Lena's head. “Then we'll use it.” She set the hat to the side. “Does your family have their boxes? Or are you bringing them by later? We could designate a desk to your family...”

Lena shrugged. “I think the boys' mom has the boxes. We brought them though because the email said to bring them.”

“Splendid, as soon as your boxes are in the classroom that's where you can place your costume pieces!”

Della walked into the classroom juggling five cardboard boxes. “Alright where do I place these?”

Mrs. Raven looked up. “Oh place them wherever you'll remember you placed them! By the desk or under the white board are usually the go to!”

Della smiled. “Thank you!”

The triplets were quick to help her and they set the boxes down by the Mrs. Raven's desk. “There how's that!”

“The perfect spot,” Ava said. She dropped into the chair by the desk and started twirling in it. “Your boxes can hide my stuff from the kids.”

Mrs. Avis rolled her eyes and then turned her attention back to Lena. She picked up four shirts and a couple of vests. “Here go try these on and pick your favorite. If the vests don't fit we'll find something else.”

Lena nodded her head and took the pile. She couldn't wait to see how her full costume would look.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song that I was listening to while writing the dance scene was Soldier, Poet, King by The Oh Hellos if anyone was curious.


	3. Setting Up

“So why are we here? Isn't theater camp next week?” Louie asked.

Della held the door to the classroom open. “Because I said that I'd help with building the pirate ship. I figured a few more helping hands wouldn't be too bad. And if there's nothing to do you could play with Rowan, Rosa, Sandy, and Carl. Also, I'm sure you could convince Ava to help you set the sound board up to play music...” She walked in as soon as the kids were in. There was no one in the classroom. “HELLO?” Della called out.

The shop door opened and the puffin opened the door. “Oh! You must be Della, I'm Jonathan...” He caught sight of the kids and waved. “Mrs. Raven's murder and Mrs. Avis' water dance are out of the stage...except for Ava. She's in here. If you want to hang out with them you can. Roxy is in charge of the Sound Booth...”

Della looked back. “You guys can go play if you want. We're mainly working on the boat today,” she said.

Louie and Huey nodded their heads and left for the stage, but Dewey, Webby, and Lena stayed.

“I want to see what's going on in the shop!” Webby said excitedly.

Jonathan shrugged. “Okay, but be careful in here. Ava's working on the ship.”

Della laughed and Lena smirked. As they walked into the shop a strong smell hit them.

“Is that spray paint?” Lena asked.

Ava looked up from where she was standing. “Yeah?”

Lena looked around. “Do you have a way to ventilate the area? It doesn't look very safe?”

Ava pointed to the door that led out of the shop to the outside. “Yeah that. Mrs. Raven and my mom are trying to see if they can find Jace so we can open the garage door!” Ava then pointed to the big silver garage door.

Lena sighed. “We're so going to get sick...”

Della walked over to the garage door. “What's up with the garage door?”

Ava pointed to a thing of chains nearby the door. “Its button is broken and so the only way to get it to open and close is pulling on the chains now. I'm weak so I'm no help, my mom is too short. Jace and Jonathan are the only ones who are able to open them.”

Della laughed. “Here let me try” she said. She pulled on the chains and there was the faint sound of the garage door shifting. Jonathan rushed over to help her.

Lena shook her head and turned her attention over to Webby and Dewey, who were both distracted by the bricks in the room. Several were painted in bright colors and covered in names and numbers.

“Hey, this one's painted like a stage and has a cool looking plant painted on center stage!” Webby said excitedly.

“Yeah! This one has a bloody handprint on it!” Dewey cheered.

Lena walked over to where Dewey was standing and scraped at the brick. “Nah, just dark red paint. Looks like it belonged to someone named Kimi?”

Dewey leaned back. “Hey Ava!”

The sound of spray paint stopped and Ava turned to look back at them. “Yeah? What's up?”

“Why do all these bricks have name and dates on them?” Lena shouted.

“Oh! Those are senior bricks! If you're graduating and you participated in basically anything theater related you get to paint a brick!” Ava shouted from where she stood.

“Do you have one!” Webby called out.

“Yeah! It shouldn't be too hard to spot but then again, there are a lot of painted bricks...” Ava coughed. “I should get back to work!”

“Or maybe you should wait until they open the garage door,” Lena said.

Ava shrugged and went back to spraying the spray paint at whatever was on the floor.

Lena turned back to bricks. “Who let her use the spray paint anyways?” She asked.

Jonathan laughed. “It was either let her spray paint the ship or let her use a knife to cut it out...”

Lena froze and looked back at him. “Alright then!”

Mrs. Raven, Mrs. Avis, and Jace, the heavier duck from the auditions, walked into the shop just as Della and Jonathan got the garage door opened about halfway, letting fresh air flow through and take the smell of spray paint out.

“Ava, did you get started on that spray paint before we could get back?” Mrs. Avis asked.

Ava smiled. “Yep!”

Jonathan lifted his hands up. “I tried to stop her but she got that glint in her eyes that terrifies me...” he said.

Mrs. Avis folded her arms. “Ava...”

Lena watched as Ava shrugged. “I'll take yellow paint to the parts that need to be painted yellow and then draw the lines. It'll be easier that way. Also Jonathan said he's gonna cut the windows out, because he doesn't trust me with the knife...”

Mrs. Raven raised an eyebrow. “Not sure I entirely trust you with the spray paint either.”

Lena giggled as Ava made a random noise and waved her arms about.

Mrs. Raven headed over to Della and motioned to some pallets and spoke. Lena wasn't paying much attention. She had seen enough of the shop and went out onto the stage, leaving Dewey and Webby to search for Ava's brick.

~

The following day they were back. The paint had needed to dry on the card board pieces and Della still needed to screw on the wheels to the pallets that she had fixed up for the ship. The kids weren't sure what they were going to do, but they had had fun dancing around on the stage the day before, so they decided to come again.

Lena walked into the drama room to see Ava standing on a chair of a desk. She was dressed in her green flower jacket and had a green witch like hat on her head.

“You'll never take me away! I can escape from all authority!” Ava cried out.

Rosa and Rowan were both on the ground wearing police hats. “We'll catch you!” Rowan called out.

“YOU VAGABOND! You won't get away this time!” Rosa yelled.

Ava laughed and stepped onto the desk before dropping into the next chair.

“What in the world...” Louie muttered as he walked in.

Ava looked up and smiled. “Hey! You, uh, wanna come distract some kids for me so I can escape?”

Webby smiled and ran over. “Hey,” she said to Rowan and Rosa.

Ava got a mischievous smile on her face. “Get her! She was the one who stole the pumpkin!” She then dropped off the desk and ran towards the stage.

Webby looked around. “Wait what?”

Rosa laughed and ducked under a desk while Rowan danced around Webby. “Get back here!” Rosa shouted.

Lena walked over and sat on one of the desks. “Looks like you were framed...”

Dewey walked into the costume closet. “Guys! There's a whole section of shelves in here just for hats! Let's try them on!” He called out.

Huey followed after Dewey and peeked in. “Are you sure?”

Dewey could be heard climbing over something. “Well, Ava, Rosa, and Rowan had hats on and I'm sure as long as we place them back where we found them, it'll be fine.”

Webby smiled. “I wanna play dress up!” She stood up and ran towards the costume closet.

Louie walked over to Lena. “I'm still confused about what just happened...” he muttered.

Lena shrugged. “I doubt we'll ever know. Wanna check out the hats?”

Louie tilted his head towards her and then looked forward again. “Sure...” He headed towards the costume closet with Lena not too far behind.

The entire room was lined in shelves and then split in half with shelves with the center as the path between the two halves. There was a mini fridge and microwave inside also. There were boxes of wigs and stage make-up. One wall was filled with shoes of all sizes and styles. Random props were scattered around the room and one corner seemed to be dedicated to staffs and other sorts of sticks.

Lena and Louie went to the other side of the room and found Dewey and Webby trying on different hats and laughing.

Webby grabbed a small lacy headpiece with blue flowers all over it. “What's this?”

Lena walked over. “Here, just set it on the back of your head and squeeze it a little bit so it fits...” she said. She helped Webby put it on. “There.”

Webby looked at her and smiled. “Now you need a hat! Oh looks at these flower crowns!” She climbed a shelf so she could grab a fake flower crown. She dropped down and placed it on Lena's head. “There you go!”

Louie walked over with a huge king crown on his head. “Bow...”

Dewey pretended to pull out a sword, a knight's helmet on his head. “I challenge you to a duel for the throne!”

Huey, who had kept his hat on and hadn't replaced it with a new one, rolled his eyes. “Let's not. Not in here...” he said.

Lena smirked. “Yeah, let's battle for the throne out on the stage,” she said.

Webby cheered. “Let's go!” She ran out of the room.

Dewey and Louie quickly ran after, Lena following after, acting like she hadn't just suggested anything. Huey rolled his eyes and followed after her.

However, when they reached the stage, Mrs. Avis was standing there with Ava, Rowan, and Rosa in front of her. When she heard the other kids walk in she looked up and smiled. “Oh! You kids can help too!”

Ava looked back. “Sweet! More hands means we can get done quicker!”

“What are we doing?” Webby asked.

Mrs. Avis shook the keys in her hands. “I'm sending you kids up to the prop room to grab all of the scenery.”

The kids looked at each other and then over at Ava. “Prop room?” Louie asked.

Ava nodded. “You know, the room where all the props are? We've gotta keep the thrones some where...”

Louie's eyes sparkled. “Thrones?”

Ava smirked. “When you have a king, he's gotta sit at some point.”

“Can I sit on the throne?”

Ava thought for a second. “If it's not in a compromised spot or covered in anything then yes, but if you do, you have to carry the palm tree down...” she said.

Louie nodded his head. “Deal!”

Ava raised her eyebrows. “You know you can't back out of it if I agree,” she said.

Louie shrugged. “Sure. I just want to sit on the throne.”

Ava rolled her eyes. “Alright, deal.”

Mrs. Avis tossed Ava the keys. “Go grab the scenery. All of it so we can see what we're working with. Also if you can find the green fabric, grab it too!”

Ava caught the keys, though she nearly dropped them. “Yes Mom!” She skipped backwards a couple times and then turned around. “Last one to the band room is a rotten egg!”

The kids all ran after her. Well, except for Lena and Louie, who just shrugged and walked after them. When they finally arrived to the band room, Ava was pushing the door open and pulling the keys out of the door.

“Alright, let's prop these doors open...” Ava muttered. She looked around and grabbed the garbage can. She slid it so that the door would hit it instead of closing. She pulled the keys out of the door. “Let's go!” She moved to another door in the band room that needed unlocking also.

“This is a lot of doors...” Dewey said.

“There are always a lot of obstacles to treasures...” Ava said as she pushed open the door, which she then propped open with a metal music stand.

The kids walked in and looked around. All they could see was a set of counters with a sink on one wall, a set of shelves with all sorts of white folders and some stairs on the other wall, and another door on the wall opposite of them.

“What treasures?” Lena asked.

Ava, Rosa, and Rowan were already heading up the stairs. “This way!” Rowan called out. They headed up the narrow staircase. At the top they could see a heavy blue door. As they reached the top, Ava pushed the blue door open.

Inside was an organized mess. There were shelves of all sorts of props. Old phones, all sorts of glass bottles, tea cups, and silver trays were only some of the many things sitting on the shelves. Further into the room was another set of shelves that had many cardboard and plastic boxes full of all sorts of fabrics and clothes in them. Across from that shelf were all sorts of chairs and wooden boxes. On the far end of the room were rows and rows of dresses and suits hung up on racks. Against the wall behind the chairs was what almost looked like a forest.

“We need to carry all that?” Huey asked.

“Yeah, but you guys can look around a little bit before we do. I'm going to search for the green fabric my mom mentioned. Louie, the throne is free!” Ava said as she headed towards the clothing shelves.

Louie cheered and moved so he could sit on the throne. It was red velvet with the wooden legs and edges painted with a golden paint. Cheap costume jewels were hot glued to the front of the armrests. He plopped down on it. “Not the most comfortable or royal looking...but it works for now,” he said.

Ava laughed. “I knew you'd be disappointed. It's a high school prop chair that hasn't been used for a couple years. Not entirely sure what you were expecting. The palm three is behind you by the way...”

Louie turned to look and spotted a fake palm tree about twice his height with leaves that were slowly falling apart so that the wire veins of the fabric leaves were no longer attached at the tips. Paint was chipping off the fabric of the trunk. “There's no way THAT'S the palm tree I have to carry down those stairs...” he muttered.

Ava looked back. “Yep! Have fun!”

Dewey, who was standing on one of the brightly colored wooden boxes, laughed. “Have fun with that!” He said.

Ava glanced at Dewey. “You'll have to carry one of the many bushes so don't think you get out of a hard job...”

Huey was looking over the greenery. “If we plan this well enough I'm sure we could get everything down with little to no problem. Lets see, if we each took a tree and then two or three bushes and flowers...”

Lena and Webby were looking at the shelves. “Lena! Look at this cauldron! It looks so real!” Webby said excitedly.

Lena walked over and raised her eyebrows. There sitting on the bottom shelf of one of the shelves was a black cauldron one would buy at a Halloween store, except painted to look more real. “Impressive,” she said. She looked around. “Wonder what else they have around here...” she muttered. She looked around and laughed. “Another corner full of sticks and wooden guns!”

Ava made a sound of triumph as she flipped a green wooden box upside down and started pulling out several huge pieces of green tulle and pellon. “Alright kids! Time to start taking the forest downstairs. Louie grab your palm tree, Dewey grab a bush. Rosa take the small basket with the purple flowers and then follow behind and pick up anything we drop!”

Louie looked at Ava as he grabbed the palm tree. “What are you carrying?” He asked. He narrowed his eyes at the palm tree and then changed how he was holding it. He lifted it up and swayed a bit.

Ava bent down, picked something up, and then turned to them. In her arms was a truck shaped paper mache rock. “My rock! Now onward!”

The rest of the kids grabbed a mix of flowers, bushes, and trees. With Louie leading the crew, they all headed down the stairs and back to the stage. After several more trips, the rest of the greenery was down. Rocks, trees, bushes, and flowers were scattered across the stage.

Webby frowned. “There's not a whole lot of flowers here...” she said.

Lena hummed. “Depending on how the stage is set I'm sure it'll be fine,” she said. She turned to Ava. “Who's even in charge of how the stage is set? Do we have scene changes?”

Ava smiled and pointed to herself. “I'm mainly in charge of setting that up. We tend to have a background that just stays put with very little things that need to be pulled on and off, like the pirate ship. The wooden boxes and the benches we have hidden under the apron are usually what we use when we need beds or seats and those can easily blend into the scenery if we need them to.”

Webby smiled. “You can get under the apron?”

Ava nodded her head. “Yeah, its the best place to hide when you play hide and seek in the auditorium.”

Lena leaned back and smirked. “You play hide and seek in here?”

Ava smiled mischievously. “Yeah, you turn off all the lights, including the ghost light, and use flashlights. My friend Laura, Jonathan, and I played it all the time with a couple other friends.”

Dewey smiled. “Can we explore under the apron?”

Ava thought for a second. “Well, we need the benches and wooden boxes out anyways so go for it. Just be careful, I have no clue what else could be under there...” She jumped off the stage and pushed the set of wooden stairs away from the stage before undoing a latch and pulling open a hidden door. “Have fun!”

The five kids scooted off the stage and all crawled onto their hands and knees to crawl under. They started pulling benches and boxes out and stored them by the front of the stage. When they got halfway through, they could hear footsteps above them.

Webby crawled out to see who it was to find Ava kneeling at the edge of the stage. “Oh!”

Ava smiled. “Hi Webby! I went back up to the prop room! I found more flowers! Some one placed them under all the princess gowns. It was weird...” She pointed towards a a basket full of pink and blue flowers. “Think that makes the flower situation a little bit better?”

Webby beamed. “Oh those fake flowers are pretty! They almost look real!”

Ava's eyes twinkled. “I'll let you pick where they go when the time comes to it! How's the bench and box thing going?”

Webby ducked down and looked at how far they were. “We're about halfway!”

Ava nodded. “Well, I'll start lifting these up onto the stage.”

As they were pulling the last bench up onto the stage, Della and Jonathan wheeled the pirate ship out. It was in three pieces, the front, the back, and an upside down wooden box that had been set onto wheels and housed the mast. The cardboard box pieces that Ava painted had been stapled to the pallets that Della had built. The back piece was taller, the pallet screwed onto pieces of woods that acted like legs and the front piece was just the pallet on wheels.

“Well! How does it look!” Della asked.

Ava turned. “Oh! That's how that's working out! That's cool!”

Dewey ran over. “Mom! The pirate ship turned out so cool!”

Louie walked over. “Pretty neat!”

Webby ran over and darted from one piece to the next. “Can I climb on it?”

Jonathan shrugged. “We were going to have Ava do the weight test. That way if it breaks, she'll be the one to get hurt...”

Lena leaned on top of Webby, so Webby would stand still. It nearly worked, instead of bouncing all over the place, she bounced in one spot. “Safety first after all...” she said with a smirk.

Webby beamed. “After Ava can I?”

Jonathan smiled. “Sure...if Ms. Duck is alright with it.”

Della laughed. “Sure Webby, after we finish with safety tests you can climb on it...”

Webby cheered, which threw Lena off balance. Lena nearly toppled to the ground, but Webby caught her.

Ava climbed onto the shorter pallet first. She shuffled around and figured out how to make the pallet move a little. “Yeah, this one seems safe. I'd sand it a little bit so kids didn't get splinters but I'm not sure if you're going to actually have them on this or not,” she said. She hopped down and then climbed onto the taller one. “AVAST YE!” Ava said as she stood up. She started giggling. “Yeah, this one seems to be holding me just fine too.” She sat down and pushed herself off. She turned to Della. “Seems pretty well put together!”

Della smiled and shrugged. “It was pretty easy,” she said.

Ava turned to Webby. “Alright, you can climb up.”

Webby ran and climbed onto the tall pallet. “Woah! This feels higher than I expected. Lena come up here!”

Lena walked over and jumped up. She sat on the edge as she watched Webby look around. “You're right, this is pretty neat,” she said. “Della this is great!”

Della walked over and ruffled Lena's hair. “Thanks kiddo.” She stretched. “I think I'll go get Mrs. Raven and Jace come check this out. You kiddos get ready to leave alright.”

Webby and Lena hopped off the pirate ship. “Alright!” Webby said.

Lena walked past the pink and blue flowers that Ava had pointed out earlier. She touched them and gasped. The flowers felt much more real than any of the fake flowers that she had carried down and they gave a shocking feeling that Lena recognized as magic.

Ava walked over. “They're pretty right? So life like too. I'd say you could stay and check them out, but it seems like your family is ready to leave.”

Lena eyed Ava uneasily. “Right...” she muttered before quickly turning and running off. When she reached the classroom door she looked back, only to see that Ava was no where to be seen. She quickly walked into the classroom.

 


	4. Monday Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry about this one being late. Got distracted by the 4th, then Ren Faire, then Stranger Things, then binge reading a 27 chapter fanfic, then a family reunion, and then typing another fanfic. 
> 
> Also going to put this out as a warning since we're on the topic of being late. I'll try to update once a week but guess what time of the year it is...
> 
> THAT'S RIGHT CHILDREN'S THEATER CAMP TIME! I'll be busy building sets, buildings props, painting, and eventually teaching kids blocking and dances. I type at night so it shouldn't be too much of an issue, but sometimes I'm just so drained that writing is difficult.

Lena opened the door to the classroom and froze. There were a bunch of kids darting through the room and weaving around the desks. A group of six and seven year old ran past Lena, with Rowan quickly giving chase.

Della gently touched Lena's shoulder. “Hey, it'll be alright. If you need a break from the crowd you can come find me and I'm sure Ava will know the best hiding spots in this building,” she spoke softly.

Lena nodded her head. “Alright...” she whispered.

Webby smiled and grabbed Lena's hand. “Come on, lets go drop our bags in our boxes! I have extra coloring books in case you need them!” They headed over to their boxes, which they dropped their stuff in.

Lena laughed. “Thanks Webby. Let's go catch up with the boys. It'll be way to easy to get lost with all these kids...”

Webby looked around and caught sight of the trio ducking into the shop. “This way,” she said as she took Lena's hand. She led the way as they wove through the different families.

“SCORE!” Dewey shouted as the girls walked in.

“Did you find it?” Webby asked excitedly. She let go of Lena's hand and ran over.

Dewey pointed to a brick not too far from the door just a couple bricks higher than he was. It was white like the majority of the other bricks, but half of it was painted black and there was a purple circle in the center of the black section. “AVA AVIS” was painted on the white half. Under Ava's name was a blue and yellow flower with a set of fairy wings painted on the sides of it. Beneath that was a list of plays. Underneath the plays was the year that Ava graduated.

Louie folded his arms. “You mean it was in plain sight this entire time?”

Huey shrugged. “Guess we didn't think it would be that close to the door? I remember Webby and Dewey being convinced that it was one of the bricks up high...”

Dewey shrugged. “So what. We found it now!”

Lena hummed and then pointed to a brick just under Ava's. “This is also in her handwriting. 'If we shadows have offended. Think but this, and all is mended.' Wait, I think that's from Midsummer's Night Dream. Why would she have that up there?”

Louie snorted. “Why does half these people have what they have written up there?”

Lena shrugged. “Okay, good point.”

Dewey turned to them. “We could always go ask her!”

Webby and Lena smiled. “Excellent idea!” Webby said. They turned to go search for her, but Ava stepped into the shop from the stage. “Alright, kiddos! Time to go sit down in the house! We're about to start!”

Dewey opened his mouth to ask her about her brick but Ava made a sweeping motion with her hands. “The house is the audience! Go! Go! Go!” She then ran out of the room to tell the kids in the classroom that they were about to start.

Louie grabbed Dewey's wrist. “We can ask when she's not so busy rounding up kids...” he said.

Dewey and Webby nodded their heads. Webby grabbed Lena's hand and ran out onto the stage.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie started following but Dewey got distracted by a light purple brick with pink flowers. “Cool! This person was in Macbeth!”

Louie opened the door to the stage and stepped through. He held the door open for his brothers. “What's Macbeth?”

Huey walked through and turn to face him. “You know, like Shakespeare's Macbeth?”

“Isn't that the guy who wrote Romeo and Juliet?” When Huey nodded his head, Louie continued. “Does Macbeth have as much death as Romeo and Juliet?”

Dewey walked towards the prop table to look at things. “Oh, Macbeth has a lot more!”

Louie laughed and let the door go. “Sweet! Do you think mom will see if we can find a copy of it? If Uncle Donald found out we watched it, I'm sure he'd flip out!” He pulled Dewey away from the prop table and they walked out onto the stage.

“Hello boys. Sit out in the house so I can see you when I call your names,” Mrs. Raven said.

Louie nodded his head and dropped down from the stage to the floor below. Dewey sat down and pushed off, while Huey walked down the small wooden stairs near where he was standing. They went to sit by Webby and Lena, who were sitting next to Rowan and Rosa.

“Where were you three?” Lena asked.

Louie shrugged. “Dewey got distracted and Huey gave a history lesson...”

Lena brought a hand up to her chest in mock gasp. “Already? And I missed it? How unfortunate,” she said sarcastically.

Louie rolled his eyes. “I'm sure there will be more...”

Huey leaned forward from where he was sitting and glared at the two. “I can hear you.”

Louie, Lena, and Webby, who was listening in, started giggling.

Mrs. Raven tapped her binder. “Alright! Let's do a roll call! Polly Anders!”

A young parrot raised her hand. “Here!”

Mrs. Raven quickly went through the names. A few people were missing, but when asked by Mrs. Avis, Mrs. Raven had said something about them being in a carpool and stuck traffic. She then turned to the kids. “Alright, we've done your roll call, now its time for the adult roll call, so you know who to go to when you see your name under theirs or if you just need help. I'm Mrs. Raven and this is my daughter Roxy.”

Roxy waved.

“Next up is Jace. Not only is he helping with scenes, but he is also our heavy lifting man. He set up the risers we have for our set.”

Jace, who was sitting on the other set of wooden stairs, waved.

“Next we have Mrs. Avis and her daughter Ava,” Mrs. Raven stopped as she glanced around. “Wait, where's Ava...”

Mrs. Avis shrugged and then suddenly one of the doors at the back of the house slammed open. Running down one of the aisles of the house was Ava and a yellow canary with long blonde hair with brown tips on her hair and tail. Ava let go of the canary's hand and jumped up onto the stage, startling Jonathan and the cardinal next to him.

“I DID IT! DELIBRATELY!”

The canary started laughing and Mrs. Avis covered her face with her hands.

Mrs. Raven glanced up at Ava. “Do I even want to know? Anyways, that was Ava with the grand entrance! And with her is Laura, hello Laura.”

Laura smiled and waved. “Hello Mrs. Raven. Sorry about that.”

Mrs. Raven shrugged. “It's Ava, what can you do? Anyways, these two and Mrs. Avis will help with scenes, costumes, and make-up. Next you have Jonathan and Peter.”

Jonathan and the cardinal waved.

“Jonathan and Peter help with the lights and soundboard. And last but not least we have Della! She helps with the scenes and props and she'll be who you go to when you are not involved with any of the scenes currently in practice...or you can go into the classroom and relax, but we'll get to that in a second.”

A kid raised their hand. “Yes?” Mrs. Raven asked.

“Is that a robot leg?” The kid asked.

Mrs. Raven opened her mouth to respond but Della laughed and smiled. “Yes, that is a robot leg.”

“So cool...” the kid said.

Several other kids raised their hands.

Mrs. Raven cleared her throat. “If Della is alright with it, you can ask about her leg later, but first we need to get through the schedule and rules. That way no one's confused.” All of the hands went down. “Alright, on the board is the schedule. First thing in the morning is music and then when we're all done at the end of the day we'll meet back in here and go through the songs some more. After music is two practice sessions, and then lunch, then we meet up in here so we're all together, and then we split for two more practice sessions before we meet up in here. Then we go over notes from both us and you and then we'll sing until your parents come and pick you up. Now for rules, there's not many but they're all important. First, no food or drink in the auditorium. The only exception is water, but keep track of your water. Next, be where you need to be. If you don't know where you need to be go to the board or find an adult. Ava is always easy to spot. If she's not directing a scene she's usually sitting at my desk in the classroom. But any adult will be willing to help.”

Lena leaned onto Webby as Mrs. Raven went over the rest of the rules. She continued to half listen. Something about not playing with props that weren't yours, cleaning up after yourself, and respecting others.

Mrs. Raven smiled and clapped. “Alright! On to the band room to practice songs!”

Lena stood up and smiled over at Webby. “Excited?” She asked.

Webby bounced. “Yes!”

Lena smiled, though her smile fell a little bit when she felt a big vibe of magic.

“You coming?” Louie asked over his shoulder.

Lena shook herself. “Yeah! Just a second.”

~

Webby was sitting on the risers that were set up on the stage with Louie laying besides her. Three benches were near the center of the stage and Huey was sitting on one of them. Besides Webby and Louie sat a female pigeon and sitting on the other two benches were another male duck and another female pigeon. Sitting off to the side were two female bluebirds and a male raven that Webby didn't recognize.

Mrs. Raven sat on the edge of the stage. “Alright, this will be the first and second scene since they blend into each other anyways. These are the scenes where The Stars, our narrators, introduce us to the characters and then when the Darling Trio and the Neverland Trio meet.”

Webby raised her hand quickly as she realized something.

Mrs. Raven smiled. “'Yes Webby?”

Webby pointed to her script. “It says here that Tinkerbell talks by making sounds on a kazoo. I think it'd make more sense if she had bells...”

Mrs. Raven smiled. “Ava's actually lending her wooden flute and she also brought over some bracelets with small bells on it It's all up to you,” she replied.

Webby smiled and lifted her fist into the air in excitement. “Sweet!”

Louie looked up at Webby. “Do you even know how to play the flute?”

Webby hesitated. “No?”

The pigeon sitting next to her and Louie rolled her eyes. “Ava will teach you, if you can get her to sit down for once...”

Mrs. Raven nodded her head. “Ava has already said that she'd be willing to teach you, so don't worry. Now, let's get onto the scene. I'll read lines for anyone who isn't here. Let's start with Peter One at the very beginning. Alright Brooklyn.”

The pigeon next to Webby and Louie stood up and spoke her lines. When they could they worked on blocking, but the first few pages couldn't be worked on without half the kids there. Brooklyn, Louie, and Webby were all huddled on the risers at some point.

“Brooklyn, Louie, time to practice mirroring!” Mrs. Raven said.

Brooklyn looked down at Louie and then shrugged her shoulders. “Come on kid,” she said.

Louie folded his arms with a smirk. “After you,” he said.

Brooklyn hopped down and walked over to where Mrs. Raven was standing, Louie close behind.

“Alright, Louie you'll be following along with Brooklyn. Let's practice, Brooklyn pick a pose,” Mrs. Raven instructed.

Brooklyn posed quickly, bringing her arms up to make a slight box shape. Louie was quick to follow. Brooklyn quickly changes poses and then started to make big movements and walking around. Louie matched up nearly perfectly. Brooklyn quickly grew frustrated.

“Why are you so good at this?” She said with a stomp of her foot.

Louie folded his arms and leaned back a bit. “I'm a triplet, plus you gotta be able to read people when it comes to my hobbies...”

The other kids started giggling at the face Brooklyn made at that. She then huffed. “At least I know you won't mess up...” she grumbled.

Mrs. Raven tsked. “Brooklyn there will be none of that,” she said. She turned to Louie. “You're doing excellent. Now let's practice the upcoming blocking just like that.”

Louie followed as Brooklyn pretended to lift up her cap, then scratched her head. They both took a couple steps forward. Brooklyn suddenly turned around and wrapped her arms around Louie.

“Hurry Wendy! Sew it on before it gets away!” Brooklyn exclaimed.

The other pigeon darted over. She looked over at Louie. “You're supposed to be struggling...” she pointed out.

Mrs. Raven sighed. “Katrina, it's fine...”

“But the script says he's supposed to be struggling,” Katrina pointed out.

Louie sighed and squirmed in Brooklyn's grasp. “Oh no...whatever will I do?” He said flatly.

Both Brooklyn and Katrina narrowed their eyes at him. He just smiled back.

Mrs. Raven sighed. “Moving on! Katrina pretend to sew their feet together...”

Katrina knelt down and “sewed” their feet together. She then stood up.

They continued going through the script. Louie mimicked everything Brooklyn did. Webby adding sass into every action she did. Huey moved a little stiffly, but he projected perfectly. Soon the hour for the section was up.

Huey walked over to Louie as they left the stage. “Are you okay? Brooklyn didn't seem to like you...”

Louie snorted. “She's less terrifying than Lena as we know her now. She's probably just mad that she couldn't make a fool out of me.”

Webby smiled. “That was so cool by the way!”

Louie shrugged. “I told you I'd be perfect for this role.”

~

Lena was sitting on the steps leading up to the two doors leading into the auditorium in the foyer. Sitting next to her was Webby and Huey. Dewey was sitting on the step above them and Louie was sitting on the step below.

“So, how did she react?” Dewey asked. He bit into the peanut butter sandwich he had for lunch.

Louie smirked. “She seemed upset, but it was kinda funny. Mrs. Raven was impressed by how quickly and perfectly I could mimic her actions.”

Lena laughed. “That's awesome. Guess who got to learn how to use a bow and arrow! Well, mainly how to draw a bow, there was no arrow.”

Webby nudged Lena. “Yeah, guys it was pretty cool! Mrs. Avis is pretty sweet.”

Dewey leaned back. “Think she'll actually teach us how to sword fight during that last scene?”

“I wouldn't be surprised if she did,” Della said as she sat besides Dewey. “I was helping her and Ava make some of the foam swords and Ava wanted to show me some of the stage fighting moves she had learned. Mrs. Avis was pretty impressive too. We may or may not have gotten into a sword fight in the shop...”

Lena snorted. “No way...”

Webby gasped and tapped on Lena's shoulder. “Over there! Over all of the kids heads, standing near Ava and Jonathan! Do you see who I see!”

Lena beamed. “It's Violet! I didn't know she was doing this!”

Webby stood up and waved. “VIOLET! OVER HERE!”

The purple hummingbird looked up and offered a smile. “Hello Webbigail! I'll be right over in a few minutes!”

Della smiled. “Well, looks like the whole crew is here!”

Soon, Violet sat herself down next to Louie. She set a dark green binder with blue and purple stars off to the side along side her backpack. She dug out her lunch. “It's good to see you,” she said.

Webby smiled. “I'm happy to see you too! Where were you this morning?”

“Stuck in traffic...” Violet replied.

“So, what role do you have?” Lena asked.

Violet shook her head. “I don't have a role. I didn't want to be up on the stage, but I asked if I could learn how to help with the tech stuff. I know you were expecting me to take an acting role when you told me about this Webby, but I'd much rather help backstage...”

Webby smiled. “That's alright! You're still here and backstage looks like it'll be a lot of fun!”

Lena smiled. “Yeah, you get to work with Ava and Jonathan...”

Violet laughed. “It's certainly something...”

The stampeding of feet caught their attention and they turned to see Sandy, Carl, Rowan, and a couple other kids run over to Della. They sat down besides her and all started talking at once.

Della laughed. “Woah! Okay, one at a time. Sandy, you go first!”

Sandy shifted where she sat and then pointed to her leg. “Have you always had that?” She asked.

Della looked down at her leg and then smiled. “No, not always. I made the first ten years ago...”

“You made that yourself!” Rowan said.

Della nodded her head and smiled proudly. “Yep!”

“What happened to your leg?” One of the other kids asked.

Della shrugged. “Lost it when the rocket I was in crashed...”

All the kids gasped. “You flew in a rocket!” Another one asked.

“Yep,” Della asked, starting to get uncomfortable with the topic.

“Where did the rocket take you?” Carl asked.

“The moon,” Della replied.

“YOU'VE BEEN TO THE MOON!” Sandy gasped.

Della laughed at that reaction. “Yep! That's where I made my first leg. This is like...the fifth or sixth leg I've made. I had to make adjustments due to the Earth's gravity being different...”

Carl tilted his head. “What's it made of?”

“Titanium, though this part is made of iron...” Della said as she pointed along.

Sandy nudged Carl with a mischievous smile. “Can we touch it?” Sandy asked.

Della shrugged. “Yeah, but be careful not to touch up by my knee here. I've got a little system on how to get my knee in and out. Oh, and by the ankle is made to be able to move so that could be dangerous to stick your fingers by. But the shin area would be fine. It's just metal though..”

Sandy poked Carl. “Dare you to touch the iron part...”

Carl glared at Sandy. “No way!” He looked at the way that Della was looking at him. “I'm allergic to Iron and so is Sandy. So neither of us should touch the leg!” He said as he shot Sandy another glare.

Sandy's only reply was to bring her sunglasses down to her eyes and shrug with a smirk.

Rowan laughed. “I'm gonna touch it!” She reach and poked the shin area. “Yeah, it's just metal...It's cool though!”

Della smiled. “Thanks!”

Lena zoned out of the conversation as she felt a very strong magical presence around. She let out a gasp and nearly dropped the cookie in her hand. She glanced up at Webby who was looking at her worriedly.

“Lena is everything al-”Violet was interrupted by a scream from the hallway.

Rosa and three other little girls ran into the foyer. Rowan looked at Sandy and Carl and they left to go check on the girls, along with a few others. There was a bunch of whispering but no one on their side of the room could hear what was being said.

“Five bucks it was a spider...” Dewey said.

“Ten bucks its just a fuzzy they mistook for a spider,” Louie replied.

“We're not betting on what terrified the little children,” Huey said.

“I think we should go ask,” Webby said.

“Ava's already checking it out,” Violet replied. Sure enough Ava was wandering over and talking to Rosa, Rowan, Sandy, and Carl

Lena reached out and grabbed Webby. Webby glanced over.

“Lena?” Webby asked. She set her hand on top of Lena's shaking one.

“Something weird is going on,” Lena whispered. Webby and Violet glanced at each other.

Mrs. Raven stood at the top of the stairs leading into the auditorium. “Alright kids! Finish up what you're eating and let's get ready to get back to practice!”

Webby smiled at Lena. “We'll figure out what's going on. I promise,” she said.

Violet nodded her head. “We'll just have to gather some clues.”

Lena nodded her head. “Y-Yeah. Who knows, I could just be over reacting too...”

Violet shrugged. “Could be that too,” she said.

Lena laughed nervously and then went to stand up. “I'm taking my stuff back to the classroom. I'll meet you two in the auditorium...” She gathered her stuff and headed to the classroom. As she passed the opening to the hallway that led to the band and choir rooms she felt another tug. She glanced down the hallway, but it was empty. Feeling completely freaked out, she hurried along to the drama classroom.

 

 


	5. Monday Part 2

Dewey sat on the floor of the choir room. He was sitting next to the parrot from earlier that day, Rowan, Sandy, and a dove. Sitting in front of them was Laura. Dewey got a better glance at her. She wore a black jacket with a grey shirt and some dark jeans.

“Where's Ava?” Sandy asked.

“She went to gather the mermaids...” Laura said.

“How long will that take?” Dewey asked.

Laura shrugged.

“They're like six and seven year olds it might take a while...” Rowan responded.

Just then the door opened. Ava was surrounded by two ravens, one of which was pulling on her arms, a blue bird, a bluejay, and a couple ducks. On Ava's face was a blue, purple, and pink splattering design with white dots splattered across her cheeks. Glitter shined in the lights.

“Really now?” Ava asked.

“Yes! We saw witches! There were three of them and they were dressed in dark clothes!” The first raven said.

“YEAH! And they looks at us!” The bluebird said.

“Oh dear, did they do anything?” Ava asked. To Dewey, it only seemed like she was playing along and not taking it completely seriously.

The second raven nodded their head. “The middle one raised her giant stick! We got so scared that we ran!”

Ava nodded her head as she led them into the classroom. “And that's when you screamed and ran into the foyer?”

The three nodded their heads.

Ava smiled small. “Well, I guess I'll keep an eye out for witches. I'm sure they'll never want to bother you kids again if they run across me. Now, let's sit down and go through our lines,” she said. She sat down besides Laura. “Thanks for watching these guys for me. Anything happen that I should know about?”

Laura shrugged. “Besides the usual from your cousin, no...”

Ava smiled and flipped her binder open. “Alright little ones! Let's go!”

Dewey looked down at his script. He didn't come in until a little later in the scene so he leaned back. Rowan and the dove went through the Peter and Wendy lines and the conversation with the mermaids.

“Wait...the mermaids don't try to drown Wendy in this?” Laura muttered as the bluebird said her line.

Everything went quiet and Ava groaned. “Laura no!”

“But, don't the mermaids try to drown Wendy in the story? I could have sworn they tried to drown Wendy!” Laura pointed out.

Dewey had never seen so many little children have such dangerous look in their eyes.

“Ava! Can we not play with bubbles and drown Wendy instead!” The older of the two younger ravens said.

Rowan started cackling. “Yeah Ava, can Lacey and the other mermaids drown Wendy?”

The mermaids started chanting. “Drown Wendy! Drown Wendy! Drown Wendy!”

The dove sitting besides Rowan started laughing. “I don't know Ava, looks like you lost control...”

Ava gasped. “Marcy, these little kids are out for your blood. How can you be on board with this? You're the one they want to drown!”

Laura smiled. “Aww, Ava, children's first death chant. Aren't they just adorable.”

Ava shot Laura a glare. “Laura, you're grounded. Go sit in the corner.”

Laura shot Ava a smirk and brought her hand up to her chest. “Whatever did I do?”

“Oh you know exactly what you did. I won't hesitate,” Ava said.

Laura laughed and stood up. “You would never...” She stretched and made a show of moving to the corner of the room.

As the kids laughed, Ava rolled her eyes and went back to the script. “'Okay, let's start where we left off...which is...Sandy!”

Sandy took a deep breath. “Help! Help!”

“Why, that's Tiger Lily!” Rowan picked up.

Dewey looked down at his script. Yeah, his section was up.

“Never! I'll never tell you where Peter Pan is!” Sandy said.

“Pretty please? We only want to...want to...” the parrot sitting next to Dewey said.

“Give him a present?” Dewey said as if he was suggesting it.

They continued going through the scene and then went through it again, this time without any distractions.

At the end of the class period Ava laid down on the ground. Laura was sitting next to her laughing. “Honestly Laura, you're evil sometimes...”

Laura shrugged. “It's just so easy...”

Dewey gave them an odd look before leaving to the auditorium.

~

Lena, Louie, Huey, and Webby sat on the risers. Dewey was sitting besides the parrot from the last class. Violet was sitting on the edge of the risers next to Jonathan.

Mrs. Avis stood in front of the herd of children before her. In her arms and on the floor by her feet were piles of foam sword. “Okay, this is the pirate fight scene at the end. This scene is where Peter and Hook have their big fight, but we also decided it'd be kind of fun to teach everyone in the scene the basics of fighting, since the pirates should react when they notice that the Darlings and the Lost Boys have escaped. So, pair up with a partner and Ava and I'll pass out the swords...”

Lena paired up with Louie, Dewey ran over to pair up with Huey, and Violet ran over and paired up with Webby. When they got their swords they looked at each other.

Louie stole a quick bop to Lena's hip. “I win,” he said with a smirk.

Lena bopped him back. “Wait until we get instructions twerp...” she said.

Mrs. Avis and Ava finally made it back to the front and started teaching about the basics of stage fighting. As they started going along Webby poked Dewey with her sword.

“Psst, Dewey,” Webby said.

Dewey looked up. “Why'd you hit me? I'm not even your partner...”

“Weren't you in Ava's class last?” Webby asked.

Lena leaned forward, only to lean right into one of Louie's swings. “Yeah, and the class with all the little girls right?”

Dewey nodded. “Yeah and it was the most bizarre time of my life. Did you know the Wendy supposedly almost drowns in the original...or at least that's what Laura says...”

“Cool!” Webby said.

“I don't think that's what Webby is asking...” Violet said.

“Yeah, I think she wanted to know what happened during lunch,” Lena said as she jabbed at Louie.

“Oh! Yeah, they said they ran across witches. Three of them, with staffs...or something. They called them big sticks, so I'm gonna assume they meant staffs...” Dewey replied.

Lena tensed up. “Witches?” She asked in almost a squeak.

Webby glanced at Lena and Violet poked Lena with her sword. “They're little. I'm sure its nothing...” Violet said.

Louie scoffed. “Yeah, how old are they Dewey?”

“Rowan said the mermaids were six and seven...” Dewey said.

“Yeah, no I wouldn't believe them. Kids that age have really active imaginations...” Louie said.

Lena relaxed a little bit. “Yeah, you guys are probably right...”

There was a cry as a kid tripped over a bench. Ava quickly ran over and checked on him. When he had calmed down. Ava picked up the bench and moved it over to the risers and lifted it onto it. “Weird...I could have sworn I moved this out of the area the kids would be...” she muttered.

Lena felt a tingle run down her back. She gasped and turned, but all that was behind her was the dark curtains and the fake foliage that still needed to be set up.

“You okay Lena?” Huey asked. He then glared at Dewey who hit him with the foam sword.

Lena shrugged. “As good as I can be in a room full of loud kids with swords...”

~

All the kids had gathered in the auditorium to end the day with notes and music. Webby was sitting with the others, Violet on one side and Lena on the other. She had noticed how tense Lena had been the last hour and quietly decided that she would stay near her. Webby silently cursed herself for not grabbing her backpack with the coloring books before sitting down in the house, but she couldn't do much about it now.

All the adults were sitting on the stage. Mrs. Raven smiled. “What a successful first day! We're making great deal of progress! Everyone seems to be working hard in their classes!”

Dewey took a deep breath. “The mermaids were plotting murder. I'm pretty sure that's not working hard.” He hadn't meant to say it out loud but from the way Ava snorted and Mrs. Raven look terrified, he must have said louder than he thought.

Mrs. Raven cleared her throat. “Anyways, very little went wrong and we're moving at an excellent pace. After all, today is only the first day!”

The palm tree tipped over as she spoke and made a crashing sound as it hit the stage. Mrs. Raven took a deep breath. “Do any of you guys have notes!”

The youngest raven from earlier raised her hand. “I do Aunt Lenore!”

Mrs. Raven sighed. “Yes Aubrey”

“Is the theater haunted? Lacey, Maurine, Rosa, and I saw three witches! They were really spooky,” Aubrey asked.

The three other girls nodded their head. “We did mom! We saw witches!”

Ava let out a sigh. “Rosa, you know the theater isn't haunted....”

Rosa folded her arms. “Yeah, but what if the theater is cursed?”

Ava hummed. “Well, if the theater is cursed I'm sure I'd be able to tell. Besides who'd have the time to curse the theater. And if anyone even thinks about cursing the theater I'll just hand them off to the fae. You know how they are about children...”

Mrs. Avis groaned. “Ava, you gotta stop using that as a threat...”

Webby felt Lena tap her shoulders. She glanced over to see Lena curled up in her chair and her hand rubbing at a spot along her neck.

“Can we go ask Della if we can sit in the classroom?” Lena whispered.

Webby nodded her head. “Yeah, let's go...” She stood up and led Lena over to where Della was sitting.

Della leaned over. “What's up you two?” She asked quietly.

Lena scratched at her neck. “I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed...” she responded.

Della offered a small smile. “The classroom should be empty. We can go over the songs when we get home if you'd like...”

Lena nodded her head. “Yeah...”

Webby smiled. “Thanks Della,” she said.

Della nodded her head. “Any time.”

The two started to leave for the classroom when they passed Ava, Laura, and Jonathan. “Yeah, Peter's pretty sure he heard cackling in the light booth. When he was looking around for the gobos Mrs. Raven wanted us to use for the sky, they had been moved up to the catwalk...”

Ava tensed up. “A bench was moved for me...”

Laura frowned. “You don't think-”

However, they had entered the classroom when Ava cut Laura off so Webby couldn't catch the rest of the conversation. “So, wanna color while we wait?” Webby asked as she dug into her backpack.

Lena sat besides her. “Sure,” she said. She took the coloring book that was offered in her direction.

“Do you believe the whole witches thing?” Webby asked.

Lena took a deep breath. “Kinda honestly. I've been getting weird magic vibes all day...”

Webby nodded her head. “Well, I'm sure if we run across them, we can beat them. You don't have to worry about anything...”

Lena smiled. “Wouldn't expect it any other way. We've got plenty of experience under our belts...”

Webby hummed in agreement. “See! Nothing to worry about!”

Lena took a deep breath and relaxed. “Nothing to worry about...”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...the next chapter may be late, but I'll try to get it up on time! Next week is Children's Theater Camp and I'll be busy teaching 40+ kids dances and songs (Also I gotta help figure out how to build a climbable bean stalk...AH!).
> 
> Then the week after that is fair so I'll be gone all day everyday...
> 
> Anyways, I promise I'm alive and if you wanna see what I am up too you can check out my tumblr at @thebardscipher


	6. Tuesday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUESS WHO'S BACK!
> 
> It's me. I'm back and I've realized that I've been misspelling risers wrong this entire time so if it says that the chapters have been updated that's because I'm fixing spelling mistakes! Also, I might be changing the titles to make things easier for me...
> 
> Also, I have a new chapter for ya'll...
> 
> I almost wanted to title this chapter "In Which Ava Doesn't Shut Up" because Ava almost let something slip when I was typing this chapter.

The next day, Webby ran up to Ava. “AVA! I noticed something in the script!” She cried out.

Ava's head whipped up and watched as the young duck charged at her excitedly. “Hey Kiddo, what's up?” On her face was gold eyeliner creating a crack like design along her left cheek and beak. In the thicker areas that looked like holes in the crack, there was white and silver glitter.

Webby pointed at the blocking. “It says here I have fairy dust! What are we gonna use for it?”

Ava smiled. “Oh, I was thinking glitter. I was gonna head over to the craft store and buy some either today or tomorrow...”

Jonathan passed by, carrying a big box of cords. “Nope! No glitter...” he said.  
Ava smirked. “A little late for that!” She said as she pointed to her face.

Jonathan groaned. “No!”

Ava gave him puppy eyes and moved her arms in front of her to clasp her hands together. “But how else are we to do Tink's fairy dust?”

Sandy, who had been snooping through Ava's bag the entire time looked up. “You know, we could just use real fairy dust. It's not like you don't carry any on you at all times...”

Ava gasped and put a hand on the necklace she was wearing. It was a small vial filled with light blue glitter, and had a metal holder with a flower design on it. “We're not using real fairy dust. We're using glitter and Jonathan will deal,” she said.

Jonathan rolled his eyes. “'Fine, but you get to sweep it up.”

Ava nodded. “Sure, why not. It'll be easy...”

Jonathan raised an eyebrow. “If you say so...”

Ava smiled. “I'm the glitter queen, it'll listen to me!”

Jonathan sighed. “I'll send Laura to help you with your class when she's done helping me,” Jonathan said as he left.

“Thanks dude!” Ava called out. She looked over at Sandy and Webby. “We'll get your glitter by tomorrow. Now you two need to head out to music...”

Webby ran up ahead a couple steps. She could hear whispering behind her though.

“Ava, you're no fun. Imagine if we did give her real fairy dust! She's so sweet I bet nothing bad would happen,” Sandy whispered.

“Sandy if I find out you gave Webby real fairy dust, you're dead,” Ava whispered back a bit quieter. “Also, you'll be banned from all shortbread cookies I cook for the rest of eternity.”

“That's so unfair...”

~

It wasn't long into the third hour of practice that the power went out. Lena was sitting next to a couple of little children when it did and their screams had made her jump.

Jace sighed and leaned back in his chair. He glanced around the choir room, where they had been practicing their scene. “Alright, who hit the light?”

Lena stood up and started counting. “...Five, Six, Seven, plus me equals eight. All the lost boys are here, so none of us touched the light.”

Jace sighed. “Great, it looks like the power is out. Well, let's just go over these lines and then we'll see what is up...”

The side door that led to the stairs to the prop room burst open and Ava stood in it. “JACE! THE POWER IS OUT!”

Jace tilted his head. “No...Ava I didn't notice...”

“Jace, the mermaids won't stop crying, nor will the indians. Jace, what do I do...” Ava said.

Jace shrugged. “What's your mom doing?”

Ava leaned against the doorway. “Handing out candy but its not working!”

Jace raised an eyebrow. “Can she do that?”

“Yes! It's not like we made the candy. Its store bought, it should be fine. But Jace, we're getting off topic. What do I do to make the mermaids stop crying...” Ava threw her hands in the air.

Jace sighed. “I don't know. Ask your mom. She had to deal with you and Lea, so she must know how to deal with kids better than me...”

Ava groaned and hit her head against the door way. “I swear if someone played with a curse...”

Lena took a deep breath. “Have you tried singing to them or dancing? I know you can dance. Have you actually tried entertaining the kids yet?”

Ava tensed up. “No?” She dug out her phone. “Alright, I've got about seventy-five percent on this thing. If I turn it to data and...there we go music...”

Jace sighed. “Ava, what are you doing?”

“Dancing? As long as they don't hold my hands and join me like that they should be fine...” Ava said with a wave of her hand. “My singing sucks, but perhaps I could get mom to sing one of her calming songs...”

Jace stood up. “Oh, this should be good. Come on kids, let's go watch this get out of hand...” he said.

Ava stuck her tongue out. “Jerk, I know what I'm doing...”

“Do you?”

Ava hesitated. “Yes, yes I do. Just gotta find a decent song...AHHA! Here we go!” She ducked back into the small storage room.

Lena, along with the other Lost Boys, followed after her. Going through the storage room into the band room. There they watched as Ava set the phone down on a chair and pressed play on whatever song she had found.

Ava spun in a circle around the little kids she and her mom had been in charge of. She danced around the classroom, a smile spread on her face.

Lena felt a faint trace of magic but it seemed like a calming magic. Lena seemed to relax even though that was not her usual instinct to sensing magic. Lena's eyes widened.

When Ava was done with her first dance, Lena turned to Jace. “Hey Jace, can I go grab my water bottle from the classroom?”

Jace shrugged. “Sure, just don't cause trouble,” he said.

Lena quickly left the room and walked through the hallway. However, as soon as she turned the corner to head towards the classroom, she froze.

Standing in front of her were three witches. Each one were dressed in dark colors and held tall staffs. Their clothes flowed and flared around them with a wind that Lena couldn't feel. The left witch's staff curved at the top and had fabrics and stones dangling from the top and she wore a long robe. The right witch's staff split in two towards the top and then curved into a circle with a stone tied to the top and hung in the center of the circle and she wore a long flowy skirt with a puffy sleeved shirt. The center witch's staff was twisted and knotty with a giant jagged crystal on the top and she wore a giant cape that flowed behind her.

Lena gasped and backed up into the wall. When she realized that she had just corned herself, she let out a soft whine.

At the sound the witches all turned to look at her. Their eyes seemed to glow and their pupils were slit nearly identical to...

Lena's breath caught in her throat. She felt her heartbeat speed up. She seemed frozen in place. She felt an overwhelming magic sweep over her and she couldn't help the tears well up in the corner of her eyes.

However, as quickly as it started it all disappeared. The witches vanished in a puff of smoke.

Lena slumped against the wall as she tried to calm down.

“Lena?” A voice called out.

Lena looked up to see Webby peeking out from the classroom, her friendship bracelet glowing a bright blue. When they made eye contact Webby dashed over.

“Lena! What happened!” Webby cried out. She quickly dropped to her knees to sit besides Lena to check her over.

Lena shook her head.

Webby nodded her head and offered a reassuring smile. “Can I hug you?” She asked.

Lena nodded her head.

Webby quickly gathered Lena into a hug. Webby felt Lena rest her head against her chest, close to where her heartbeat was. Webby sat there and rubbed circles along her back.

A couple minutes later Lena seemed to relax. “I saw the witches...” Lena muttered.

Webby tilted her head. “The ones the children saw yesterday?” She felt Lena nod.

“They had very strong magic. It felt so bad...and one of them remind me of...” Lena muttered.

Webby tightened her hug. “And we'll fight these witches, just like we fought her...” Webby said stubbornly.

Lena let out a sigh. “There's three of them this time...” she said.

Webby frowned. “Do you wanna tell the adults?”

Lena shook her head. “You saw how they reacted yesterday. They won't believe us...”

Webby hummed. “Well, we're older than the kids that reported the witches yesterday. So maybe they will.”

The lights turned on and Lena wiggled out of Webby's hug to look around. “Come on, lets go before someone spots us. I want my water bottle for real this time...”

Webby stood up and helped Lena up. “So are we going to tell the adults?”

Lena shrugged. “I'll think about it.”

~

At the end of the practice day, Webby walked out onto the stage. Ava had asked her if they could meet up on the stage afterwards.

Ava was moving around on the stage, a couple of fake bushes in her hands and bunches of green fabric looped behind her neck. She stopped and glared at the risers, which were covered in several other green fabrics and most of the foliage they had brought from the prop room. When she heard Webby walk out onto the stage she looked up. “Oh! Webby! I was just finishing up on this. Where do you, Peter, and Peter's Shadow hide in the beginning? We're gonna have the gobo for the window shine center stage, so that's mainly gonna have bushes and a few trees kinda framing it on the center riser, then maybe some trees near the edges. I'm trying to figure out where to put these two bushes right now. OH! And the flower bush I found the other day, the one with the pink and blue one. Yeah, you can place that where ever you want...”

Webby beamed. “Really! Can I place it besides the tree by the window so I can use it to hide behind at the beginning?”

Ava smiled. “Go for it. The bush is still backstage on stage left...” She then moved to place one of her bushes besides a tree on the risers.

Webby ran off to grab it and then moved it next to a tree but still where it could sit in front of the window where she would be hiding. She smiled towards Ava. “Like this?”

Ava took a few steps back from where she was standing. “Perfect! I think there's a small bush with purple flowers I could put on the other side. Want to move the truck shape rock over to the Lost Boy hideout?”

Webby nodded her head and jumped down from the riser. She quickly found the truck shape rock that she recognized as Ava's rock. She picked it up and carried it out to the small section of the stage that they were making the Lost Boys hideout. “Right here?”

Ava looked up as she set down her other bush. “Yeah perfect! Its gonna be moved several times anyways so don't worry about placement too much.”

Webby nodded and then ran over. “What did you want me here for anyways? It didn't sound like set design when we were talking at lunch today...”Webby asked.

Ava, motioned to a pouch around her waist. “I have your musical instrument for communication...” She pulled out a wooden flute. It was made out of a dark wood and had a swirly design on it. “You play it basically like a recorder if you've played the recorder. You mostly just need it to make sounds though, though its nice to know what each note is so you can like associate feelings with them.” Ava sat down and patted the spot next to her.

Webby sat besides her. “What note do you associate with sass? Since that's a lot of what Tink does?”

Ava smirked. “The note F. On this, all the fingers of the top hand is down and on the bottom hand the only finger up is the middle one. Also for extra sass, blow really hard and sharp.”

Webby tilted her head. “How does that sound?”

Ava smiled. “Like this.” She then played the note. It was high pitched, really quick, and made Webby jump, even though she was expecting it. Ava laughed. “It's more effective on a regular flute though.”

Webby smiled. “Can you teach me the rest of the notes?”

Ava nodded her head. “Sure, and you can take this wooden flute home and practice.”

Webby's eyes widened. “Really?”

Ava shrugged. “Yeah, I have a couple others. My dad makes them...” She then passed it over to Webby, before pulling out a second wooden flute from the pouch. This one was a light wood and had a flower etched into it above the first finger hole. The flower was painted blue. “Okay, we'll start with A...”

They sat there for a little while longer as Ava went down each letter of the scale. She'd then show Webby how it was supposed to sound and then would have Webby play. They went over the scale a few times.

“Could you play me a song?” Webby asked.

Ava thought for a second and then shrugged. “I mean it couldn't be too dangerous if I did. Let's see what can I play.” Ava hummed and then brought her flute up to her mouth as she finally decided on a song.

The song she played had a very lullaby feel, though it wasn't a lullaby that Webby could place. The song started low and Webby found herself swaying with the song. She yawned and as she watched Ava play she got thoughts of birds, trees, wind, and the night sky. For some reason the song made her feel a warm feeling in her chest. The song came to an end with a few higher notes and as Ava moved the flute from her mouth, the feeling in Webby's chest started to dissipate and she was left feeling kinda fuzzy, as if she had just woken up from a nap. She rubbed one of her eyes tiredly.

Ava glanced over at her. “Oh, oops...guess even that short of a song might have had an affect...”

Webby smiled. “It was really pretty. I don't think I'll be that good by Friday or Saturday...”

Ava shrugged. “I've been practicing for years. You just need to make sounds. So take it home and practice. You can even bring it everyday and practice here too. It might be good to have the sounds for people to react to,” she said.

Webby smiled. “Okay!” She thought for a second as she hummed. She opened her mouth to ask a question, but there was a call for her. Webby looked up to see Lena waving by the curtain.

“I think Della's ready to go. You ready?” Lena said as she walked over. She offered a wave to Ava, which Ava returned.

Webby jumped up and carefully held the flute in her hands. “Yeah! Hey, wanna see what I learned?” She held the flute to her mouth and played through the scale.

Lena smiled. “Nice!”

Webby smiled and headed towards the door. “Oh! How do you think this will sound in the air ducts!”

Lena smirked mischievously. “I dare you to do it!”

Webby laughed. “We're going to terrify everybody...” She glanced back at Ava and offered her a wave. “Thank you!”

Ava waved back. “No problem! Cover your ears when you play in the air ducts, it'll be loud and echoey!”

Lena laughed. “Thanks for the heads up!”

“Safety first you know,” Ava said with a shrug.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Ava dances to is "Wriggle" by Cosmo Sheldrake and the song Ava plays is "One is a Bird" From OTGW


	7. Wednesday

“In Never Never Land!” The children sang.

Webby and Lena sat on the floor of the band room as they sang the song that they nearly had drilled in their heads. Lena was slightly leaning on Webby, not that Webby minded, Lena had had a terrible nightmare the night before. Webby smiled small as she could hear Lena's singing voice better this way and Lena was an amazing singer in Webby's opinion.

Webby looked around and met eyes with Della. Della titled her head and pointed at her own shoulder.

Webby just smiled and held up her thumb.

“Who you telling good job too?” Lena muttered.

“Della, she's wondering how you are,” Webby whispered back.

Lena lifted her head to looked over at Della. She smiled and held a thumb up too.

Della smiled at the two girls before pointing up towards the front where Mrs. Raven was. Mrs. Avis was up there also, but her focus was mainly on getting all the little children to focus and sing. Ava leaned against the wall chatting with Peter, the cardinal.

Webby turned her focus back to Mrs. Raven as they started singing through the opening number again, “I know a place where dreams are born-”

A loud blaring sound erupted throughout the room. Children screamed, the adults looked up in alarm, and Lena cringed and leaned even more against Webby.

“Everybody outside!” Mrs. Raven shouted.

All the children were quickly rushed outside. Webby and Lena were one of the last ones out. Mrs. Raven was gathering them out on a big field of grass between the performing arts building and the middle school.

“Alright! Get in a line! Shortest to tallest! Laura help the little ones get in the right space!” Mrs. Raven called out.

After the children got in line and they went through roll call, Mrs. Raven looked around to see if she could see the people who had been in the shop and light booth. Violet, Jonathan and Jace rushed out onto the grass, Peter not too far behind.

“We're here!” Jace called.

“It took you long enough,” Mrs. Raven said.

“As we were leaving, we decided to look at the fire alarms. It wasn't any of the alarms in the auditorium, shop, or the drama classroom!” Jonathan said.

Webby and the other kids were getting restless as the adults were talking. The littlest ones were crying, the oldest ones were goofing off and pushing each other around, and the group that consisted of Webby and triplets were just bored.

“Hey, how about someone ask the adults how long we're going to be standing here doing nothing!” The duck playing Micheal whined.

Louie nudged Webby. “Yeah Webby, how about you go ask the adults. You're the brave one...”

Webby shrugged. “I don't know. They look busy,” she said.

Louie smirked. “I dare you.”

Webby grunted. “Fine!” She marched over towards the adults. Looking back at times to the others. As she got closer, Webby could hear more clearly what the adults were saying.

“Not the foyer or the bathrooms either!” Peter said.

“Well all the children are here,” Mrs. Raven said. She glanced back towards the school as Mrs. Avis and Ava ran out.

As Mrs. Raven glanced back to the school, Webby raised her hand to get her attention. However, it didn't work.

“So you're not going to believe this...” Ava stated when she got to the group of adults.

Mrs. Raven glanced over towards Mrs. Avis. “Cass, what happened...”

Webby put her hand down. This had the potential to be too interesting to interrupt.

“We checked the band, the choir, and the prop room and none of the alarms in those rooms were pulled. I sent Ava out to check the hallway and while she was checking the hallway she decided to peer through the window to the weights room. The alarm there was pulled...” Mrs. Avis explained.

Mrs. Raven frowned. “But the weight room was locked and all the kids were in the band room singing,” she whispered.

Ava frowned. “Did the high school have an alarm test scheduled? I know school starts in like...a month?”

Mrs. Raven shook her head. “They have that scheduled for next week...” She took a deep breath. “Can you guys help calm them down and get them back on track. I'm gonna call someone to take care of this...”

Webby scampered back into the line before she got caught out of line. Webby felt arms wrap around her shoulders. She felt Lena rest her head on top of hers. “Lena, you're gonna get in trouble for being down this far...” Webby whispered.

“I asked Laura. She said it'd be fine since Mrs. Raven already did roll call...” Lena said.

Webby frowned as she eyed the group of adults not standing too far. “They checked all the alarms. It turns out the alarm that was pulled was in a locked room...”

“Weird...” Lena muttered.

Violet rushed over. “You look dead...” Violet said.

“Nightmare,” Dewey said from where he sat pulling up grass.

Violet looked down at him and then back up to Lena. “Was it about the witches you saw?”

Lena shrugged. “More or less...”

“Oh, so it did involve her...” Louie said.

Huey pushed Louie over. “Ignore him...”

Della walked over to the group of kids. “Everyone alright over here?” She asked.

They all nodded their head, except for Lena, who just shrugged.

Della let out a sigh. “Mrs. Raven is calling the people to come turn it off. It should be off within the next hour or so...hopefully...” She glanced towards Lena. “You doing okay?”

Webby felt Lena nod against her head. “Yeah...”

Della smiled at the girls. “If you need a break, you and Webby come find me...” Della said.

Webby smiled and nodded her head. “Yes Della!”

Della glanced over towards Ava, who also looked shaken up. “I need to go help calm down little kids. Ava looks like it might be too much for her right now...” She left with a wave to the group.

Webby glanced up at Lena. “You wanna sit on the grass with Dewey? I didn't manage to grab the coloring books, but we could watch the clouds in the sky and sing our songs!”

Lena smiled. “Sure thing Pink...”

Webby carefully guided Lena down to the ground and laid down. She smiled when Lena rested her head on her stomach and then giggled when Violet laid down and rested her head on Lena's.

Eventually they were aloud to go back in again when the alarm stopped, but they had managed to get through singing and part of their first scene practices by that time.

~

Lena watched as Ava stood at the front of the stage, a foam sword in her hand. “Alright, Peter, do you remember the routine?”

“Yes Ava!”

“And you Hook?”

“I hope so!”

“Shadow how about you?”

Louie stood besides Peter. “For the most part! I actually practiced on Dewey yesterday!”

Ava sighed and tilted her head. “Yay for practicing, but does Dewey actually know the routine?”

Louie smirked. “No, I just hit him with the sword a bunch of times. But it was the routine!”

Ava glanced at Dewey, who was standing besides the Lost Boys. “I'm so sorry...”

There were giggles coming from the children that were scattered across the stage. Some were sitting on the very edge, while the Lost Boys, Darlings, Tinkerbell, and Smee were standing nearby the pirate ship.

Ava held her sword up. “Alright! Go!”

Lena leaned against the pirate ship careful not to move it much and watched as Louie, Polly, and Topaz, a robin, fought with the foam swords. However, as they kept going, Lena started getting a bad feeling.

Lena glanced around. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Some of the lights were on, but that was because Jonathan had turned them on for this scene so he could figure out the lighting. But other than that nothing.

However, the feeling just kept getting worse and worse and Lena felt like she was shaking. She noticed Webby walking over and Ava looking in her direction.

“You okay” Webby whispered.

Lena shook her head. “Not really...”

“You want to go sit down and take a breather?” Webby asked as she gently took Lena's hand.

Lena hesitated but then nodded. She glanced at a few of the other Lost Boys.

It was then that Lena heard the metallic scrapping sound. She froze.

“Lena?” Webby asked.

Ava had froze too. “Everybody off the stage now!” Ava said quickly.

The metallic sound came again.

“NOW!” Ava shouted.

With that all the kids separated. All the children sitting on the edge of the stage pushed down and ran into the house, hiding behind chairs or watching from a distance at the mayhem on the stage. Those closest to stage left were quickly led off the stage in that direction by Huey, Polly, and the girl playing the second Wendy. Webby, Dewey, and Lena rushed all the other kids off to stage right. Louie and Topaz ran and jumped off the stage.

There was a loud crash as something landed onto the stage from high above. Lena turned to see something had landed right in front of Ava, who had gone still in her panic. Ava had one hand wrapped around her necklace, and another held out to her side as if she had been trying to get kids to stand behind her. Both hands were glowing blue and there was a slight blue glow behind Ava's back. Lena let out a gasp.

As the glowing died down, Ava shook her head. She glanced around at all the kids before meeting eyes with Lena. As Ava's eyes locked onto Lena's she took a couple steps back before turning around and running.

Laura, Jonathan, and Peter ran out onto the stage. “AVA!” Laura shouted.

Jonathan walked over. “No way...” He muttered as he bent down to pick up what had dropped down onto the stage. He held up a gel frame. “Guys, look at this...”

Peter took a deep breath. “Again?”

Laura glanced around at the kids. “Which way did Ava go?” She asked.

All of the kids pointed to the side door.

Laura nodded. “Thanks!” She said before dashing after Ava.

Jonathan stood up from where he was crouching. “Its not hot, but it still could have burned Ava if it hit her...”

“Wait...are those iron?” Peter asked.

Jonathan shrugged. “Not sure, but if it didn't burn her it could have cut her...”

Peter hummed. “I'm gonna go find Mrs. Raven...”

Jonathan sighed. “Everyone into the classroom...now...”

~

Lena sat on the stairs looking at the lunch she had packed. She had a very nervous feeling in her stomach that made her sick even just thinking about eating. It seemed like everyone did during lunch that day.

None of the kids had seen Ava since she ran off. It sounded like Laura, Peter, and Jonathan had but they were keeping where she was hiding secret.

“She'll be fine. Jonathan has already checked up on her. From what I overheard between him and Mrs. Raven, she's not hurt...” Della said softly the the group of kids.

“Did you see how she looked! It's like she had seen a ghost,” Webby said.

“Well she was looking at Lena when she had that expression,” Dewey stated.

Lena shut her lunchbox. “What do you mean by that!” She asked.

Dewey shrugged. “Well, you are kinda a ghost. Webby and Violet brought you back...”

Della sighed. “Dewey...”

“Or maybe she finally realized the witches were real and thought you were one of them...” Louie said. He snapped a piece of his already broken up cookie in half.

Lena tensed up. “You-”

Huey scooted into the center of the circle. “Nope! We're not having this conversation...”

Violet hummed. “You don't think she can sense magic do you? She'd have to be something supernatural herself wouldn't she?”

“Yeah! Like how Lena's been sensing something weird all week, but none of us have noticed a thing!” Webby said.

Everyone glanced at Lena. Lena brought her shoulders up as she tried to hide from their view behind nothing. “If she could sense magic, then I'm sure she would have noticed and cared about the witches all week!” Lena said sharply.

“Unless, she thought the weird magic vibe was from you,” Louie said.

Lena pushed herself up. “I'm taking a break. I'll meet you in the auditorium...” She walked towards one of the doors leading into the auditorium. She entered the small square room that stood between the foyer and the auditorium. However, the third door, which led to a stair case, was open and Lena could hear the faintest of humming. Something urged her to check it out.

She carefully went up the stairs and noticed the door that led to the light booth was cracked open. The humming was coming from there. She pulled it open and walked into the light booth. On the wall to her left was a bunch of cupboards and drawers and on her right was a glassless window that opened up to the auditorium. Against that was a counter with a couple computers and a device with lots of dials and sliders and buttons. Lena figured that was what helped with the lights during performances. There were also two spot lights, one on each side of the counter. On the wall next to her was a ladder.

The humming was coming from above her.

Lena decided to climb up the ladder. Halfway up she paused.

There sitting on a small ledge made out of metal grating was Ava. She was pressed against the wall and curled up so her legs were pulled against her chest and her head rested on her knees. The humming seemed to be coming from her.

“Ava?” Lena asked quietly. The humming stopped and Lena felt like whatever was pulling her in the direction was cut.

Ava looked up in Lena's direction. Her eyes were wide in surprise. “Uh...” she said as she tried gathering her thoughts. When she seemed to finally settle on something she offered a crooked smile. “You know little ones aren't aloud on the catwalk, right?”

Lena looked up above her and noticed that if she was to go a little bit higher up the ladder she'd come to another metal grate landing that seemed much bigger. It seemed to go through the wall and out above the auditorium. She glanced back to Ava. “I wasn't planning to?”

Ava looked over Lena for a second. “What were you planning to do then? Most kids don't just climb random ladders...”

Lena thought for a second. Her thoughts were kinda scattered. She then shrugged. “I don't know. Sit out in the auditorium? I wasn't hungry and I didn't want to be around Louie...”

Ava snorted. “Yeah, the light booth isn't the auditorium...”

“I heard humming. I came to check it out...” Lena replied. She stepped onto the ledge carefully and sat besides Ava. “You know, all the kids are wondering where you are...”

Ava sighed. “I'm sorry...”

Lena shrugged. “You nearly got hit by something that fell from the ceiling. I'd be surprised and scared too...”

Ava shook her head. “'That's not it. Okay...that's kinda it, but there's something else to it. Something I should have taken care of on the first day.”

Lena frowned. “Okay, now that just sounds cryptic. What's up?”

Ava shrugged. “I can't just drag you into it. You're like...a teen?”

Lena leaned against the wall. “Look, my friends find trouble. If you don't drag me into it now, I guarantee you, we'll jump into it at the worst possible time. Might as well get it over with.”

Ava sighed. “The light falling reminded me of the time I played with a curse. A friend and I got bored during one of our last performances and we decided to chant the M word...”

Lena looked over confused. “The M word?”

Ava shook her head. “Not saying it, not here. There's too much that could go wrong. Ask me again when I'm not in the building. It's best known as the Scottish Play though...”

“Just like on your brick! Is what you have drawn on it a Gel Frame? That's what Jonathan called the thing that fell...” Lena said.

Ava nodded. “Yeah. Anyways after we chanted the word many...many...times during intermission we went out on stage. When I was saying one of my lines I heard metallic rustling above me and took a couple steps forward. That's when a gel frame fell exactly where I was standing...”

“Like what happened today? Do you think...” Lena spoke softly.

Ava sighed and rested her head back on her knees. “I really hoped not, but it has to be. Jonathan and I are gonna check the lights today though to make sure they aren't loose though...”

Lena took a deep breath. “Ava?”

Ava hummed as she titled her head to look at Lena again. “Yeah?”

Lena hesitated. “Can you...sense magic?”

Ava's eyes widened. “Why do you ask?”

Lena curled up a little herself. “Because I can and I've been getting weird vibes all week. I also ran into the witches myself yesterday and it was terrifying. It was strongest then. The little kids weren't lying...”

Ava took a deep breath and looked away. “And here I thought you were the source of the weird magic vibes I was getting...”

Lena's eyes widened and looked over at Ava. “Ava?”

There were footsteps and Peter entered into the light booth. “Ava, your mom says she needs help keeping the mermaids in check...” he called out.

Ava sighed and stood up. “'Alright, better show up before any more kids find my hiding place...” she said. She turned and helped Lena up. “And you need to go to your next practice session. You Lost Boys are everywhere it seems...”

Lena offered Ava a smile. “I'll help you figure this out...”

Ava sighed. “I guess, if you must. But don't let it get in the way of your practice...” She stepped onto the ladder. “Come on, let's go...”

~

Violet was watching as Jonathan cranked the handle that moved the lights down to look at. He, Peter, Della, and Ava were all going to check the lights to move them to where they needed to be and make sure that they were all tight onto the bar.

Peter and Della watched as they came down as Ava flitted around the stage, moving things around if she was worried that they'd get knocked over.

Ava laid a tree down as she watched the lights move just above her head. “Alright Jonathan, you're almost done!”

“And you better be careful! Peter, do you have Ava's gloves?” Jonathan called from the wing.

Peter dug in the pocket of Ava's bag, which was sitting on the apron next to him. “Found them!” He said. He tossed the pair of leather gloves towards Ava.

Ava caught them and grumbled as she pulled them on. “I don't get why you make me wear these when working with the lights. I'm pretty sure the bar and most of the lights are made of steal and the reason I got burnt that ONE time was because the light was still hot...”

“Wasn't hot when I touched it just seconds after you did...” Jonathan said.

Della tilted her head. “I feel like I'm missing something here...”

Peter looked over. “Ava's not aloud to touch iron. She's allergic...”

Violet walked around. “So we can touch these?” She asked.

Jonathan finished cranking the lights and walked over. “You and Della are gonna move them to where Peter and I tell you too so Peter, Ava, and I can hang them up...” he said.

Violet nodded her head. “Okay!” She watched as he loosened and unhooked a light and handed it to her.

“Go set this on the apron,” he said. He turned to Ava. “Honestly can you go any slower?”

Violet carried the light to the apron.

“Well, maybe if I didn't have to wear these dumb gloves...” Ava said.

Violet returned in time to see Jonathan roll his eyes. She took the next light that he handed her.

“This one goes to the apron too...” Jonathan said.

They continued on like this for a while. Taking the lights to the apron or if Jonathan already knew what he wanted to do with a certain light underneath the number written on the bar that he said.

“This one's going to go under thirty four okay?” Jonathan said.

Violet nodded her head and carried the light over to the second bar. She found number thirty four and placed it under the bar at that spot. She turned and noticed that at some point Ava had taken off her gloves.

Ava reached for a c-clamp, but when she touched it, she let out a yelp and quickly pulled her hand away shaking it.

“AVA!” Peter called out. He set the light in his hand down and ran over. He grabbed Ava's hand and took a long deep breath. “Where are your gloves?”

Ava smiled sheepishly. “On the floor?”

Peter sighed. “And this is why we wear the gloves...”

“Well how was I supposed to know that this was the single iron c-clamp we own in this theater? It looks just like the others. I could have sworn we had painted it...” Ava said.

“We did paint it but then some of the kids in stage craft whined that it looked weird and scrubbed all the paint off...” Jonathan replied.

Ava groaned and threw her hands in the air. “Well, how was I supposed to know!”

“Because you were supposed to wear your gloves,” Jonathan said.

Della frowned and walked over. “Here, I've got a first aid kit in my bag...” she said.

“Wait...an entire first aid kit? Not just like band-aids and wipes?” Peter asked.

Della raised an eyebrow. “Have you met my kids? Its best just to bring the entire first aid kit...”

Violet snorted. “She has some salt in there too, just in case...”

Jonathan gave a very confused look towards her. “Do I want to know?”

“Probably not,” Violet said with a shrug. She leaned back so she could watch as Della led Ava back into the classroom.

Perhaps she'll have to look at her book about the supernatural again...

 


	8. Thursday

It was the morning and Dewey didn't have a scene that he needed to be practicing. He was currently curled up in one of the comfy chairs next to Mrs. Raven's desk playing a game on his phone.

At least he was until he felt someone punch his shoulder. He looked up to come face to face with Sandy, who had a giant smirk across her face.

Dewey pulled out his headphones. “What's up?”

Sandy pulled on his wrist. “We're gonna go practice our scene in one of the practice rooms...” she said.

“Practice rooms?” Dewey asked.

Sandy shrugged. “I think it's one of the smaller rooms between the band and choir rooms. You know, the ones we're not usually aloud in. Mrs. Raven said it'd be okay if you, me, Rowan, and Polly went into one to practice the Tiger Lily scene...”

“The one we usually practice with the mermaids, but they're not actually a part of?” Dewey asked.

Sandy hummed and nodded her head. “Yeah! That one!” She pulled him off of the chair and towards the door.

Dewey shook out of her grasp and followed after. They quickly met up with Rowan and Polly in the band room. Rowan had a set of keys in her hands.

“Okay, mom says its okay if we go in but we're not aloud to touch anything that belongs to the band. If we do mom will sic Ava on us and Ava's stressed as it is...” Rowan said as she stuck the keys in the door. She pushed it open soon after.

They entered the door that led to the hall of practice rooms. On both sides were two rooms, the two rooms on the right were jam packed with percussion instruments and music stands while the two on the left were mostly empty except for a few instrument cases and a piano in one of them and a desk and computer in the other. The hall was full of stacked chairs and a big sideways drum that looked tempting to hit.

Rowan had opened the door to the room with the computer while Dewey was looking around. “Okay, we've got to try to get through the scene at least twice and we can't be longer than an hour...” She explained as she held the door open.

Everyone went inside and went straight into practicing their scene. The door shut behind them.

After going through the scene two times and having started a third, Sandy was very obviously dancing in place.

“Sandy, can you please stand still?” Polly said. “You're supposed to be tied to a rock...”

“Yeah, but I've like...gotta go...” Sandy whined.

Rowan laughed. “I think we should let her go to the bathroom. We've already reached our goal of twice and we need to send someone out to check the time anyways. Might as well be her...” Rowan said.

Polly shrugged. “Alright Sandy, hurry to the bathroom. We'll be here waiting for you,” she said.

Sandy rushed to the door to open it, but when she twisted the knob and pulled the door didn't open. “Uh...I think its locked...”

Rowan frowned. “I don't remember locking it but the practice rooms are weird, try unlocking it...”

Sandy twisted the lock and pulled again. “'Uh, its still locked? Or maybe I just locked it. Let me try again...” she twisted the lock again and tried opening the door. “'Nope! Still locked!”

Dewey sighed. “Here, let me try...” he said. He twisted the doorknob and pushed. “Nope...that didn't work either...” He twisted the lock and tried pushing again. He frowned as he twisted the lock to the unlocked position and pushed again before trying to pull. “Weird...”

Rowan sighed. “Well, I've got mom's main set of keys...”

“Why would you take them inside with us?” Polly asked.

“So Rosa, my cousins, and their friends didn't lock us in...” Rowan said with a shrug. “It made perfect sense at the time. I wasn't expecting us to get locked inside a room that we should be able to lock and unlock from the inside. It'd be dumb for me to leave them inside when I leave but its not dumb to bring them in while I'm inside the room.”

It was then that they heard giggling.

“I swear if Rosa found the other set of keys...” Rowan said as she walk towards the door.

Dewey glanced out the big window that made up part of the wall next to the door. He froze when he spotted three witches. “Uh....guys....I don't think it was Rosa or any other little kid...” he muttered.

Rowan looked out the window with Dewey and Sandy peeked out the window on the door. Polly peered over Rowan and Dewey.

“No way...” Polly muttered.

“So the little kids weren't lying...” Rowan whispered.

“And you know what that means?” Sandy whispered back.

Rowan groaned. “Oh no...”

“What?” Dewey asked. He glanced over at Rowan and Sandy. “Guys, why are there witches in the theater?”

Polly gasped. “Quick, everybody duck into that corner. They're coming over!” She grabbed Dewey by the upper arm and pulled him into the corner by the door and the wall. She pushed him to the ground and then sat in front of him against the wall.

Sandy and Rowan darted to the corner too. Sandy pushed up against Dewey and Rowan right up against the door. They sat there quietly.

There was tapping on the glass and witchy cackling. Something hit the door, making it shake and causing Rowan to gasp as she was flung forward a bit. The cackling grew louder.

“Dewey, text your mom,” Polly whispered.

Dewey nodded and pulled his phone back out. He quickly sent a text her way and just a minute later he received on.

“Okay, my mom should be coming in just a second...” he said.

Not long after, the cackling and banging on the glass abruptly stopped. Then a few second later there was a knock. “Dewey?” Della's voice rang out.

All the kids jumped up. “DELLA!” Sandy called.

Della peered into the big window then smiled and waved. “The door's locked,” Della said as she pointed towards the doorknob.

“We can't unlock it from this side for some reason. Can you see if you can unlock it?” Dewey said.

Della frowned. “Have you tried the lock?” She asked. “It looks like there should be a lock.” She made a motion of twisting the lock.

“We've tried it,” Rowan called out.

Della nodded. “Alright, one second...” She started digging in her pockets and came up with a bobby pin and a credit card. She disappeared behind the door.

First the kids heard a sound of rattling between the door and the door frame. After a minute or two that sound stopped and the sound of the doorknob shaking started. After a few minutes of that there was a snapping sound.

“AH PHOOEY!” Della said. She quickly ducked back to the window. She shrugged. “Sorry kiddos. I'm gonna have to go get Mrs. Raven...” she said.

Sandy gasped. “Go get Ava!”

Della glanced at the door and then back at Sandy through the window. “Alright, if you think Ava will be able to help, then I'll go get Ava. I'll be right back. Hang tight.”

Sandy danced in place. “I've really gotta go! Please hurry!”

Della nodded and then ran off.

Dewey leaned against the desk with the computer. “Okay, would someone like to explain to me what's going on while we wait for mom and Ava to get here?”

“Someone cursed the theater,” Rowan said as if it was obvious.

“What? How?” Dewey asked.

“They said the name of the Scottish Play,” Polly stated.

“Even you know about this?”

“Everyone in the theater knows about the curse of the Scottish Play...” Polly said.

“Obviously not me!” Dewey exclaimed.

“Well, now you do and now you know what's going on,” Polly said.

“Well, what is it so I can know not to say it in the future?” Dewey asked.

“Yeah, no...” Polly muttered.

Sandy shrugged. “I mean, the curse is already in motion so...”

“I guess it couldn't hurt. Look its the play Mac-” Rowan was cut off by someone knocking on the window.

“Hey twerps! What the heck happened?” Ava yelled through the window.

“The witches happened!” Sandy shouted back.

“Yeah! Turns out Rosa wasn't lying about the witches!” Rowan called out.

“Now hurry up! I've gotta go!” Sandy whined.

“Okay, you always have to pick the worst times to go...” Ava grumbled. Ava ducked down so she was face level with the doorknob. There was a rustling sound and the sound of a snap and then the doorknob twisted.

All the kids stepped back as the door swung open. Ava stood there with a spooked look her face. “Alright, everyone out. Its time to switch classes anyways. Quick!”

The four of them dashed out. When Dewey exited into the band room, he glanced back at Ava. He saw her knelt on the ground, tracing something onto the floor. He waited until she stood up and she met eyes with him.

“Well, what are you waiting for? You're going to be late to your next scene and keep everybody waiting...” Ava said as she exited the practice rooms.

Dewey nodded his head. “Right...” he quickly dashed towards the drama classroom.

~

When Huey entered the classroom he had not been expecting Webby to be cheering about blood. He looked up horrified towards where Webby, Lena, and Violet were sitting behind Mrs. Raven's desks, or more sitting on in Lena's case, and saw that Ava had her leg up on top of the main desk. In Ava's hand was a red lip gloss.

“Who's bleeding! Wait here, I'll go get my mom! She's got the first aid kit!” Huey said in a panic.

Ava laughed. “No one's bleeding Huey, everything is fine” she said. She waved him over. “And that was the perfect response in the case that someone was bleeding. Good job!”

Huey walked over. “Then why was Webby getting excited for blood?” He glanced at the desk Lena was sitting on. On it was a make-up bag with all sorts of eye shadows and lip glosses and a container full of putty like stuff. He then glanced over at Ava. On the leg propped on the desk was what seemed like a deep gash. However, the gash seemed kind of lumpy and the grey was a bit off to be a part of Ava's actual leg. Also the blood that was in the center seemed off and matched the shade of the lip gloss in Ava's hand. Huey narrowed his eyes. “Is this stuff for special effects?”

Ava smiled. “Bingo! I'm still learning though and mainly through videos. Also, I don't have the money to buy like...the really good stuff so I'm stuck with what's in my make-up bag. Not too bad though for using what I have on hand. I made the fake skin myself too! Not quite the right consistency but hey, not bad for a first try!” She dabbed a bit more of the lip gloss to the center of the “wound”.

Huey leaned over and watched. “What kind of wound are you going for?” He asked.

Ava shrugged. “I don't know. Maybe make it look like I was trying to pull out a riser and have it screw up my leg...”

“Oh, then you'll want to have the skin around the gash ridged and uneven. It's not going to be as clean as you currently have it. And you'll want to make the edges look irritated. While it doesn't quite match your skin tone, you'll want to make it a purplish color. Also your lip gloss is too red, you need to make it a little darker. Do you have a dark red eye shadow you can pat onto it? Or maybe mix into the lip gloss?” Huey said.

Ava smirked. “You seem to know a lot about wounds kid.”

“Well, you have to be prepared for anything. Junior Wood Chuck rules...” Huey said.

Ava nodded her head. “You, I like you. Alright, let me see...” She swiveled in the chair she was sitting in so she could dig in her eye shadows. “There's my dark red.” Ava grabbed a dark red eye shadow and patted her finger on it. She carefully dabbed it onto the lip gloss. “There, that's a little better. Probably not as good as if I was to mix it with the lip gloss but I'm feeling lazy today...”

Huey hummed and nodded his head. “Yeah! That makes the blood look better...” he said.

Webby smiled. “Huey! You should play with us when we do special effect make-up during sleepovers!”

Huey shook his head. “No way...”

Lena laughed. “What too chicken?”

Huey folded his arms. “You guys go wild with that special effects stuff. You guys terrified me with that eye trick!”

Violet snorted. “Oh it wasn't that good...”

Ava looked back. “Eye trick?”

Huey threw his arms into the air. “They made it look like Lena's eye had popped out of her head! I was freaking out! I would have called the ambulance if Louie hadn't snatched the phone out of my hands at the last second.”

Lena laughed. “That was funny.”

Ava took out a toothpick from a small baggy. “Sounds like you kids play with this stuff a lot then. Must have some of the fancy stuff if you managed to pull a trick like that.”

Webby smiled. “Its a lot of fun! I'm trying to perfect drawing eyes so I can get my third eye convincing enough to fool Launchpad!”

Ava smiled as she ran the toothpick through the fake skin, making it appear ridged and torn. She looked up from what she was doing. “Is that the guy who drives your family ove-OUCH!”

They all looked down at Ava's leg. Actual blood started to well up from where she had poked herself with the toothpick.

“Now how did I manage that? I didn't think the toothpick would be sharp enough to actually make me bleed. Now I have to take this all off and make sure it gets cleaned...” Ava muttered. She let out a sigh. “Alright kids, lunch will be over soon. Go sit in the auditorium...”

Huey nodded his head. “Yes Ava!”

~

Louie leaned against the wall. Besides him was Marsha, the sparrow who was playing the second Peter. Huey and another duck named Jacob were sitting on the edge of the ramp that led up to the stage from the side. Webby was standing on the line where the floor changed from carpet to the wood of the stage with Katrina leaning on the wall next to Webby. Standing out on the stage was Lena and the other Lost Boys. Ava was sitting on the edge of the stage.

“Alright, let's take this from the top!” Ava said.

“Where's Mrs. Raven?” Katrina whined.

Ava sighed. “The janitors needed to talk to her about some things so she's meeting up with them. She'll be back before the end of the hour I promise. Just go through the scene like you would if she was here. I won't touch blocking or anything. I'm just here to make sure no one gets hurt...”

Katrina sighed. “Fine...”

Louie smirked. “I mean, unless you think you can go up against some witches,” he said.

Katrina rolled her eyes. “Not you too. The whole witches thing the little kids are going on about is fake! You can't really believe them!”

Louie watched as Lena flinched where she stood. “Not sure if I believe the kids, but I believe my friends and family and a light nearly landing on you can definitely make you rethink some things. Besides, a few witches wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've ran into...”

Katrina scoffed. “Whatever...”

Ava sighed. “Focus! Tink, you're gonna start the scene since the narrators are somewhere else.”

Webby nodded. She quickly dashed onto the stage up to where the Lost Boys were, a twinkling sound coming from the flute as she blew into it. When she stopped a played a couple notes in a greeting.

Lena smiled and bounded to meet up with Webby. “Hey Tinkerbell!” She said.

“If Tinkerbell is back then Peter must be back!” A small crow said.

A set of twin doves gasped. “Peter's back! Peter's back!”

A swallow folded his arms. “I don't see him. Tink?”

Webby leaned forward as she played a quick scale.

Lena frowned and scratched her head. “What's that you say?”

Carl pushed through the group and folded his arms. “She said, that she has a message from Peter Pan!” He said with an eye roll. Louie could definitely see how he and Sandy were related.

Louie watched as Webby tapped at the bow made out of a stick and yarn that was looped across Lena's shoulder and then started miming shooting a bow and arrow. The scene went on as they had practiced.

Well for the most part, as Lena pulled back the bow to shoot an imaginary arrow, something shot down from the cat walk, nailing Katrina in the shoulder.

“OW! Lena, I thought you said we weren't actually shooting anything and we were going to use the stick I'm currently holding!” Katrina yelled, glaring daggers in Lena's direction.

Lena looked over at her hands, where the string was still pulled back. “I haven't even let go of the string! Besides, even if I did have something notched onto this bow, it would have hit you from the front, not your shoulder.”

Katrina bent down to pick up what had hit her. It was one of the arrows with felt arrow heads on them for another scene that was later on in the play. “Well, explain this then!”

Lena shrugged as she let go of the string. “I don't know,” she said.

Suddenly there was a cackling that filled the entire auditorium. Louie tensed up and pushed off the wall, the same as Marsha and Huey and Jacob pushed off the ramp, standing near the chairs in the house. All the Lost Boys crowded around Webby and Lena.

“What was that...” Katrina asked.

Suddenly raining from the catwalk were several more of the arrows. Far more than Louie could remember seeing any of the adults create. They came pelting down and Louie lifted his arms to block them from hitting his face. He could hear the children screaming, though he thought he could hear Webby and Lena chant something over them.

He felt a tug on his sweater and turned to see Marsha pointing towards the sound booth, where Huey was already leading Jacob. He nodded his head and followed after Marsha to the sound booth. All four of them pushed the chairs out of the way and then crawled under, making sure Jacob, the youngest of them, was the farthest in.

Louie made sure Marsha was in next and then frowned. “Huey, you stay here and make sure they aren't hurt. I'm gonna peek out to make sure Lena and Webby have hidden...” he said.

Huey nodded his head.

Louie crawled out from under the sound booth and behind some of the chairs next to it. He peeked over see that Lena and Webby had quickly grabbed each other's hands and raised their free hands into the air. Their bracelets were glowing blue and the arrows aimed in their direction were bouncing off of some sort of force field. However, with in a couple seconds of him watching, all the arrows froze in the air. He glanced around to see what had made them freeze and his eyes widened.

Ava was floating a couple feet off the stage. Her hands were in the air, a light blue glow surrounded them both. Behind her nearly transparent fairy wings glowed and beat slowly, a light blue glow coming from them also. She flicked her hands towards the ground and the arrows dropped where they were, coming down like rain. She glared up towards the catwalk.

“Alright, you have our attention. We could have done this the nice and easy way, but no, you decided to threaten the kids. As soon as I catch you, you're going to pay big time...” Ava growled.

A chill ran down Louie's spine. He looked up above him in time to see three witches lean over the edge to glare at Ava.

“The Fae thinks she can stop us...”

“But surely she should know!”

“The only way to stop the curse...”

“Is to get the ones who chanted the name to say the lines!” They all called out. They quickly turned to smoke and disappeared.

Ava floated back to the ground and looked back towards were Webby and Lena stopped their spell. Lena swayed before Webby caught her. Ava ran over to help ease Lena to the ground. “Is she okay?” Ava asked.

Webby nodded her head. “That was a bigger spell than we're used to and we held it for a lot longer too...”

Ava nodded. “Thanks for protecting the kids...” she said.

Webby nodded her head.

Louie watched as Violet darted out from stage right over to where Webby, Lena, and Ava sat. “Do you want me to go find Della?” She asked.

Webby nodded before Violet quickly dashed off to the classroom. Webby then shifted nervously. “Are you...really a fairy? Or was that like...really cool lighting?”

Ava laughed. “I'm really a fairy. I wish I knew how to do lighting effects like that...” Ava sighed and stood up. “Alright, I'm gonna say we're done going through this scene until Mrs. Raven appears! I'm tired and I'm going to take a nap! I suggest Tootles and Tinkerbell take a nap too!”

Della ran in, with Dewey and Violet right behind her. However, while Della and Violet ran over to Webby and Lena, Dewey ran over to where he spotted Louie.

“Guys!” Dewey whispered loudly.

Louie rolled his eyes as he stood up. He headed over to the sound booth and helped Huey stand up. “What Dewey?” Louie said.

Dewey grabbed both of their wrists and led them to the back of the auditorium and pulled them into a tight huddle.

“Dewey, seriously what's going on?” Huey asked.

“Okay, so I looked up what the Scottish Play is and, uh, do you guys remember that conversation we had on the very first day?” Dewey said.

Louie thought for a second. “The one about that Shakespeare play and then Huey gave us a history lesson?”

Dewey nodded his head. “Yeah, that one....so turns out that play is also known as the Scottish Play and is known to be cursed...”

Huey frowned. “What do you mean cursed?”

Dewey rolled his eyes. “As in if you say the name of the play in a theater bad things happen...”

Both Louie and Huey's faces turned to one of horror. “Oh..”

Louie groaned and folded his arms. “This explains a lot...”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I have given a number for how many chapters to expect, though it may be 11 if a certain chapter gets too long...we'll see


	9. Friday

Violet leaned against the desk. “It doesn't surprise me that it was you three who cursed the theater...” she said. It was Friday morning before practice started, she had gotten there early that day. “I mean, every where you go something happens, so why wouldn't you be the cause of a curse. I'm just surprised none of you had heard of the curse. The Scottish Play is quite popular among thespians.”

“Thes- what?” Louie said. He tilted his head towards her confused.

“Thespians.” Violet repeated. She tilted her head, expecting him to have heard the word before.

“Actors. Well, anyone who's involved with theater really...” Lena said. She folded her arms. “And how did you three manage this?”

“Yeah! Why didn't you invite me if you guys were playing with curses!” Webby said.

“We weren't trying to play with a curse! Dewey found the name on one of the bricks and got excited! Louie was confused and I told him what it was. We each said it once...” Huey explained.

Lena facepalmed. “We can't have one normal week can we...”

“Why would you want a normal week?” Webby asked.

Violet shrugged. “Well, I think it would be safer for all of us to tell one of the adults. At the very least Ava. Surely she would know what to do, especially after the display yesterday...”

“Tell me what?” Ava's voice rang out behind them. Ava had the door to the stage opened as she came in. “Also, ghost eyes or sketchy third eye? And I don't mean sketchy as in spooky or off but like drawn with eyeliner and using my eye shadow so it'll looked like it was sketched on, because it was...”

Webby hummed. “Third eye.”

All the kids in the group nodded their heads.

Ava smiled. “Awesome, so what do you need to tell me?” She asked. She walked over to the counter where her make-up bag was and started digging through it.

Dewey glanced at the girls and then at his brothers. He let out a sigh. “Huey, Louie, and I were the ones to say the word...” he said.

Ava hummed as she dug out her white eyeliner. She started looking for the light blue eye shadow she liked to use sometimes. Her hand then paused as she looked up. “Wait...what word?”

Dewey looked back at his brothers. When Huey nodded and Louie shrugged, he continued. “The M word...the other name for the Scottish Play...”

Ava dropped the liner and the blue eye shadow she had grabbed. “It was you!” She stepped away from the counter and ran her hand through her hair, the beanie falling to the ground and making her curls stick up all over the place. “But why?”

“'We didn't know the word was cursed?” Huey offered, his voice raising a tad at the end.

Ava opened her mouth but Louie cut her off.

“Look, Violet already got on our case for not being Thesapolians. Also, we could have given you this answer earlier if someone had explained what this Scottish Play people kept muttering about was...” Louie said.

Ava raised an eyebrow. “You're like what, ten, eleven? Most of the other kids here that age would have gone wild once they knew the actual name for it. Look, after I chanted the name and nearly got beamed with a Gel Frame the first time-” Ava started.

“The first time!” Huey said. “Are you saying you've played with it yourself and you nearly getting hit with the Gel Frame wasn't the first time?”

Ava held up a hand. “Hey, you twerps aren't the only ones who like to play with curses. Anyways, after my cousins figured out what my friend and I chanted backstage, they were writing it across the walls. Didn't do anything since our house isn't a theater but they thought they were causing chaos. No way am I gonna flat out tell ten year olds that there's a word that can cause chaos. Too much power in a ten year old's hands...”

Lena snorted. “That actually sounds very reasonable. I wouldn't trust us with the knowledge of that word either.”

“Look what happened when they didn't know what the word did,” Violet added.

Ava took a deep breath. “Alright. Since I now know who did it. I can do this the easy way. Okay the easier way because its too late for the easy way.”

“What's the easy easy way?” Dewey asked.

“Well, usually it involves me or Mrs. Raven catching you saying the word and sending you to my brick and you repeat the lines written on my brick three times,” Ava said. She bent down to finally pick up the make-up she dropped.

“Well, what's the easy way?” Louie asked.

“We catch the witches, we trap the witches, you three repeat the lines three times. There's some magic involved since its been almost five days. Hopefully it works...” Ava said.

Violet laughed. “And the hard way?”

“I do it by myself. I use a spell to confuse the witches. I repeat the lines three times. I pray the witches are convinced...”

Webby smiled. “We get to fight witches!”

“Maybe?” Ava said with a shrug. “We'll see how well I can think up a plan in the limited amount of free time I have today...”

Lena raised her hands to the ceiling. “Just one week of normal is all I'm asking!”

Ava laughed. “Next week is the fair, maybe then you can have a week of normal. Not many things can get cursed at the fair. Well, maybe the antiques...but that's all I can think of being cursed...”

Webby beamed. “Guys! We should go to the fair! I want to look at cursed antiques!”

“Webby,” Huey said. “You can already look at cursed antiques. We live with Uncle Scrooge...”

“Yeah, but these will be new cursed antiques. I already know all of Uncle Scrooge's cursed antiques...” Webby said.

Ava rolled her eyes. “Yeah, this is what I was talking about. I would never give you guys the name. EVER! Other kids are arriving...please behave...”

There was a combo of responses ranging from “Will do!” to “I make no promises!” All were good enough for Ava. She sent a peace sign in their direction and ran towards the mirror, hoping to get her make-up done before being called to do anything.

Violet hummed. “Do you think she'll be able to come up with a plan in time? Dress rehearsal is today and the performance is tomorrow. We're going to be busy...”

Lena shrugged. “We can only hope...”

~

Throughout practicing the opening song, closing song, and curtain call Webby had been watching Ava. Ava seemed very intent on the stage. Webby watched as she paced across the stage, seeming to count as she walked. After crossing the stage several times, Ava pulled on the curtains and looked at the curtains with much greater detail than anyone ever would.

Sandy rested her arms on top of Webby's head and leaned on her. “That's it, she's finally cracked. Took her long enough...” Sandy said.

“Nah, I think she's just trying to figure things out...” Webby said.

“Did she finally figure out who cursed us?” Sandy asked.

“It was the triplets. I missed out on all the fun, though it doesn't actually sound like there was much cursing, just accidentally saying the name...” Webby said.

Sandy laughed. “I knew I picked the right group of kids to hang out with this year! But you're probably right, she's got her thinking face on. See, she sticks her tongue out stupidly and narrows her eyes. Any second now she'll tilt her head as she thinks over her options. You'll know she's got something when she starts rolling up onto her toes and then back down again. Kinda a bounce but not quite. Whatever it is, its dumb looking.”

“Sandy is that where you're supposed to be standing?” Mrs. Avis called out.

“Yes?” Sandy said as she shrugged. When Mrs. Avis gave Sandy a look, Sandy sighed. “Fine...” She grumbled. She folded her arms as she stormed off. “Ava's on the stage!”

“It's fine! I'm sure she's doing tech business or something!” Mrs. Avis said.

Sandy glanced in Ava's direction. “Or something is right...”

Webby turned to watch Ava again. Ava had one corner of two different curtains and lifted her arms out before twisting a little bit. It seemed to Webby that Ava was testing how far out the curtains went. When Ava rocked up onto her toes and back down, Webby smiled. Perhaps Ava would come up with something.

“Ava! It's almost time for your mermaids! Come help them set up!” Mrs. Raven called.

Ava jumped a little. “Oh! Okay!” She said. She ran over to the apron of the stage, grabbing her binder from where it was sitting. A blue glow enveloped the binder and it quickly flipped open to the pages she needed it to be at. She turned to the stage. “Are all the mermaids backstage?” She asked. There were six little “Yes”s and Ava smiled. “Alright mermaids, when you hear “This is what they saw” you walk out. Do my box carriers have their boxes?”

“Is this the bubble scene” One of the mermaids asked.

“Nope, so the bubble carriers don't need to carry the bubbles! Can I have the star say their line again?”

“When they got to Neverland Island, this is what they saw!”

The little girls came out. One of them was carrying a grey box, and two of them were carrying a blue box with dark blue waves painted on it. The one who carried the grey box sat on it and the two girls who carried the blue box sat on it. The other three either stood or sat near the boxes.

“They saw Mermaids!”

“They were playing in the lagoon and saw the shadows in the sky as Peter and the others flew by!”

Ava smiled. “Ready to sing? Watch me for the arm movements...” Ava said. She took a deep breath. “In the lagoon...” she started.

However halfway through the little girls tilted their heads sideways. “Ava...” Lacey said.

Ava hummed. “Yes Lacey? What's the matter?” She asked.

“You sang the wrong set of lyrics! You sang the set of lyrics for the bubble scene! We're supposed to sing 'While we're devoting, full time to floating'” Lacey said.

When all the other little girls nodded, Ava sighed. “I'm sorry. Do you want to try that again. We'll start the song over again...” She looked back at the piano player and nodded her head. They started singing again, this time singing the right set of lyrics.

The rest of the scene went with very little problems. When Ava let the binder float down to the ground as she went to lead the little mermaids off stage and make sure the boxes were set in the right place, Webby noticed Aubrey grab Ava's hand. “Are you sleepy?” The little raven asked.

“Nah, just distracted, but I'm sure I'll be fine after Lunch...” Ava smiled. Ava turned to Webby.

Webby gasped as she felt a magic thrum run up her spine, for a second she was in a near panic because what if it was one of the witches but when the image of a flower popped in her mind she relaxed slightly.

“When you're done, come find me backstage,” Ava's voice spoke telepathically.

“Woah! Are you inside my head?” Webby thought excitedly.

“Nah, just speaking with telepathy. Usually only do this with my friends and family who give me permission, but this is an emergency. Find me backstage when you get done...”

“Alright! You have a plan?”

“Yeah. Bring Shadow and John also...”

Webby nodded her head. “Alright!” She said loudly. She froze and glanced around at the people around her. She smiled and waved, though through the corner of her eye she could see Ava facepalming.

~

Lena picked at the wrap in her lunchbox. “You guys think we can pull this off?” Lena asked.

Webby nodded her head. “Of course we can! Now eat a little bit of something, even if its just the candy bar, Ava wants you to be able to use your magic in case of her plan back fires...”

Lena nodded her head and took an actual bite out of her wrap. “Yeah, our escape plan for if things do go wrong is to duck between the wall and the front curtain to hide into the shadows. Webby hug, Violet and Huey take my hands and Dewey and Louie, shoulders or arms alright. I'll use my shadow magic to hide us. Got it? Unless Ava tells us to go get help, then we sneak through the shadows behind the Cyc. I think since we're kinda melding with the shadows against the wall we won't touch it.”

“If you guys are planning to sneak through the shadows behind the Cyc, then I better pray to the theater gods that we don't need a back up plan. You kiddos ready? The auditorium is empty and I finally convinced Sandy, Carl, Rowan, and Rosa that they can't help. Let's go before they start a coup. Don't wanna deal with that on top of witches...” Ava said as she snuck up behind the group.

Louie let out a yelp as he jumped. “How can you sneak up like that? You're one of the loudest people I know and I live with Dewey and Webby!”

Ava smirked. “Would you believe me if I said Mist Steps?” She asked.

Louie narrowed his eyes. “Isn't that a Warlock Fae move?”

Ava's smirk quirked up a bit. “Yep!”

“Then the answer is no, nerd...” Louie said.

Ava shrugged. “The only other option is that you're just jumpy. Come on let's go,” she said. She led the way to the classroom. “Put your food behind Mrs. Raven's desk by my stuff, I'll sneak it back to you if we don't have time to eat afterwards.” She waited for them to place the food down before heading into the shop.

Lena pointed to the brick. “Okay you three, get those lines memorized or write them on your hand...” she said.

Ava smiled. “'I'll send Lena to come get you guys when we're ready,” she said. She waved to the girls. “Come on! Webby, Violet, grab a curtain and try pulling them tight for me. Lena, I'm gonna need your help. Floor or curtain first?”

Lena hummed. “Curtains, that way we don't accidentally smudge the floor...and I won't have to step by the sigil...” she said.

Ava smiled. “Excellent! Now remember you don't need to add too much of your magic to the sigils, I just want to strengthen them a bit since I'm using fairy magic and witch magic is a bit stronger than fairy...” Ava stopped at Webby's curtain first. She pulled out her necklace, popped the cork off the vial, and dipped her finger into the vial. Light blue fairy dust clung to her finger. “Oh, Jonathan is gonna kill me,” she muttered. She dragged her finger on the curtain, steadily making a symbol on the curtain in the fairy dust. When she placed the final line on it, it glowed a bright blue. Ava glanced at Lena and nodded her head.

Lena carefully set a finger at the starting point on the symbol. She focused just a little bit of her magic on the sigil. A darker blue seemed to spread like ink along the lines that Ava had just drawn. When it reached the last line before glowing a slightly darker blue.

“Awesome!” Webby said excitedly as she bounced in place.

Ava smiled. “Alright, let's go do Violet's...” she said.

They repeated the process on Violet's curtain. Then they moved over to the floor.

“Be careful when I'm done with this one. It's a symbol meant to freeze any witch that steps within its circle so I don't wanna accidentally trap you...” Ava said.

Lena nodded and took a few steps back. She watched as Ava started with a circle and then went on to make the rest of the sigil. When Ava stood up and brushed off her hands, causing them to stop glowing, She carefully went over to where Ava started the circle. She set her hands along the edge of the circle and fed magic into it until it glowed a dark blue. As soon as it dimmed, Lena scrambled backwards to get as far from as she could.

Ava smiled. “I'm gonna go jump on the ship to hide. Be prepared to use magic in case the witches manage to break the bonds our sigils cause. Now go get the boys and then hide!”

Lena nodded and watched as Ava settled herself on the lowest pallet of the ship. Lena then darted for the boys. “Okay, guys, you better have that written down somewhere...” she said as she ducked into the shop.

Huey held up a paper. “I'm sure we have it memorized enough to repeat it three times, but I've got it written down in case...” He said.

Lena nodded her head. “Alright, get going. Enter from the classroom. See you soon...”

Dewey nodded. “Got it! You have your magic ready?”

Lena nodded.

Louie glanced her over. “You doing okay? You seem nervous...”

Lena rubbed her arm. “'Just ready to get this part over with...and then finish dress rehearsal. Why aren't you nervous?”

Louie finger gunned towards her. “I don't have to say a word except these three lines...”

Huey rolled his eyes. “Don't over do it with the magic alright,” he said.

Lena rolled her eyes right back. “That's the plan if Ava's works out as she hopes. Now go, we're running on a tight schedule.” She ducked away.

Lena situated herself on the risers behind a curtain. From here she could grab Webby if worse came to worse.

There were three whistles that came from the left side of the stage. Huey, Dewey, and Louie each walked out onto the stage. “OH! Let's play name that tune! I'll start!” Dewey said excitedly. He started whistling a tune.

“Darkwing Duck Theme. PLEASE pick anything but that!” Louie said.

“Fine. OH! How about this!” Dewey started another.

“Hey, it was my turn!” Louie said.

“Yeah, but you said to pick another, so its my turn again,” Dewey said. He started whistling the tune again.

“Oh, its that one song you and mom are always singing. It's by that Power guys isn't it? Uh...Eye 2 Eye?” Huey said.

Dewey cheered. “Yeah! Okay Huey, your turn!”

Huey hummed and then started whistling.

“That's the Flying Machine song mom showed us on Uncle Donald's record player,” Louie said.

“Hey! You got it! Your turn Louie,” Huey said.

Louie started whistling.

“Oh! Oh! I know it! Its-” Dewey was cut off as a yellow bolt of magic struck down besides them. By now they were in center stage. They turned towards stage left where the magic had come from.

There stood the three witches. “You're just asking for trouble aren't you?” The one in the center said.

Louie laughed nervously. “Actually, it was the theme of the Ottoman Empire, but hey, maybe I just suck at whistling songs. We can't all be winners...” He shrugged.

“Get them!” The center witch yelled. Magic charged in the crystal at the top of her staff.

“Run!” Huey grabbed each of his brother's hands and ran.

The other two witches ran towards the brothers while the center witch walked forward a little more slowly as she charged her magic.

The brothers quickly crossed the circle and watched as the two witches froze inside it. “Now!” Webby shouted.

“'But we only have two!” Violet said.

Lena glanced out onto the stage where the center witch was raising her staff to get ready to aim. “You don't have time! Now!”

Violet nodded her head and her and Webby started twisting the curtains around the two witches.

Right as the center witch opened her mouth to chant a spell, Ava jumped out from the pirate ship and tackled her to the floor. “NOW WOULD BE A GREAT TIME TO SAY THE LINES BOYS!”

“Right!” Huey said. He held the paper out for him and his brothers to see.

“If we shadows have offended. Think but this and all is mended. If we shadows have offended. Think but this and all is mended. IF WE SHADOWS HAVE OFFENDED! THINK BUT THIS AND ALL IS MENDED!” The boys all chanted together.

After the third time, there was a loud screech as the witches cried out in pain. Suddenly they all turned to smoke, which rose to near the lights. Suddenly there was a blinding yellow flash and then everything was calm. The heavy and bad magic vibe that Lena had been feeling all week was gone, leaving behind a small, light, mischievous magic vibe behind that Lena figured was due to Ava and her family.

Ava had landed on her face when the witches had turned to smoke. She looked up with a smile at the kids on stage right. “We did it!” She said. She smiled towards Lena. “Ooh! Your magic feels nice! Like chilling in the shadows of a tree on a hot summer day with friends! I can actually tell the difference now!” She laughed. “I can't believe we managed to pull that off! Here before any of you guys move let me clean up this mess...” she pushed up off the floor and walked over towards the curtains and the circle.

Ava popped the cork off her vial again before she held her hand out. It glowed the light blue her magic glowed. Suddenly all the sigils glowed bright blue and seemed to float off the curtains and floor. Suddenly it zoomed back towards Ava and went back into the vial, filling it back up with fairy dust.

Lena felt a shiver along her back and then she felt more energized than before they had started. She visibly shivered. “Ava, what was that?”

“Well, I was only borrowing your magic so since I'm done you got it back. Also, you may or may not be a little hyper, side affects from working with the Fae...” Ava said with a shrug.

Lena laughed. “I think I can actually get through dress rehearsal now...” she said.

Ava smiled. “Better get ready. We're trying on costumes this time through! Better go get ready!”

Webby jumped up. “WOOH!” She ran over to Lena and grabbed her hand. “Let's go!”

Lena smiled and followed after. “Thanks Ava!”

Ava folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “You're all nuts!”

 


	10. The Performance

Lena stood still as Ava put make-up on her. Besides Ava were Laura and Mrs. Avis, who were also doing make-up based off of sketches Ava had drawn. Lena made a face when she felt the cold face paint go across her cheek. “Cold...” she said.

Ava laughed. “Sorry, kiddo. I think you're all done now though. I've gotta do Tink and then start the mermaids...” she said.

Lena nodded and then ducked out of the way. She paced near the desks as she waited for Webby.

Dewey was sitting on one of the desks. He had on a blue and white striped shirt on and a red sash tied around his waist. “Are you nervous?”

Lena glanced at him. “What no?”

Louie smirked. He was sitting on the desk across from Dewey. He was dressed in a black morph suit, with a black Peter Pan outfit pulled over it. “I don't know, you seem kinda nervous...”

Lena folded her arms. “Okay, maybe I am. Aren't you two? This is our first time performing in a play!”

Dewey shook his head. “Nah, not really. We fought witches yesterday so I mean, a play performance couldn't be too bad...” he said.

Louie glanced over at Dewey. “Nah, he's totally nervous...” he said.

Huey walked over. He pulled on the red pajamas he had on. “Anyone else nervous?” He asked.

Lena shrugged. “Pretty much everyone in this corner,” she said.

“Except for me,” Louie said.

“Especially you,” Lena replied.

Webby ran over. She was dressed in her Tinkerbell costume, with the addition of a pair of fabric wings and two bags on a belt tied to her waist. Her make-up was all glittery. “Look! Ava let me pick out which glitter to use! And she even put some of her gold glitter in my hair!”

Lena smiled. “That's a lot of glitter...” she said with a laugh.

Webby beamed. “This isn't even half of it! Look in the bag!” She opened up the pouch on her waist. It was filled to the brim with gold and green glitter.

“They're really trusting you with glitter...” Louie muttered.

Webby nodded her head. “And the other bag has the wooden flute Ava's letting me borrow,” she said. She bounced in place, the wings moving and the pieces of the petal skirt danced with the action. “Are you guys excited! This is our first play! It's gonna be so cool!” She said.

Lena laughed. “Yeah! You ready?” She asked.

Webby nodded. “Yeah! You should go make sure your props are ready!”

Lena nodded her head and then turned to the boys. “Is your mom going to be helping backstage?”

Huey shook his head. “Nah, she asked Mrs. Raven is she was going to be needed, but since Mrs. Raven already has Violet and Peter in the light booth, Jace and Roxy on the left side, Mrs. Avis in this classroom, Ava and Laura on the right side, and Jonathan at the soundboard, he said it'd be okay if mom sat out to watch.”

Lena nodded her head. “Okay...”

Webby gently bumped shoulders with Lena. “Hey, it'll be alright. You've got this,” she said.

Lena smiled gently at Webby. “Thanks, I think I'm gonna head over and grab a drink from my water bottle...” she said.

Webby smiled. “'I'll come with you.” She gently took Lena's hand and they headed to their boxes.

When Lena grabbed her water bottle, she turned to look at Ava. Ava's leg was bouncing on the chair a little kid was sitting on. Ava looked very focused on the little kid in front of her. The little kid had a pair of fishnet tights on her head.

Lena walked over and watched as Ava patted purple eye shadow on the little kid. “What are you doing?”

Ava glanced in Lena's direction for a half second and then glanced back at the kid. “Doing mermaid make-up...” she said simply.

Lena hummed. “That's actually brilliant. I'll have to teach Webby this trick...”

Ava smiled. “Thanks...” she said.

Lena glanced at Ava's bouncing leg. “Nervous?”

Ava made a breathy sound somewhere between a scoff and a laugh. “'Extremely!”

Lena smiled. “You're not even acting...”

“Yeah, but someone has to do the scene changes and I wasn't exactly the most focused yesterday...” Ava muttered.

Lena hummed. “Well, I think you'll be fine...”

Ava nodded. “Is your family staying for the after party? Laura and I are going to figure out how to work the cotton candy machine Mrs. Raven brought...”

Lena laughed. “Yeah, if it means seeing you and Laura make a mess,” she said.

Laura looked up from the kid she was working on with a mock gasp. “Rude...but no, we're probably going to blow the thing up if that's even possible...”

Lena looked up at Ava. “Should you even be handing cotton candy that you made out?”

Ava paused and hummed. “Probably not, but what's the worse that can happen?”

Lena titled her head and gave Ava an unamused look. “You're a fairy...”

Ava narrowed her eyes. “I'm sure that power doesn't work all the time...”

Laura laughed. “Only one way to find out!”

Lena's eyes widened. “And you're supposed to be the responsible adults back stage?”

Ava went back to finishing up the kid's make-up with some glitter. “Who ever said we were responsible was lying...”

Webby smiled. “I want some cotton candy! I'll be willing to risk myself to see if the cotton candy is alright!”

Lena sighed. “Webby no,”

As soon as Ava pulled the fishnet stocking from the kid's head, revealing the purple and gold sparkling scale pattern, Mrs. Raven clapped her hands. “Alright kiddos! We've got ten minutes until the show starts! Let's do finishing touches on make-up and then do some warm ups in the shop! And then its too your places!”

The kids around the room either ran towards Ava, Mrs. Avis, and Laura, or towards the shop.

Ava glanced at Lena. “I'll see you in a bit! Laura, finish up the kid you're doing, tell the rest of your line to get either in my line or mom's or if they can put on their own make-up to glance at my stuff and do their own finishing touches, and then go to our side so you can do the headphones...”

Laura nodded as she added a bit of blush to the kid in front of her. “Alright,” she said. She smoothed out the blush and smiled. “Alright, you're done!”

Lena and Webby left along side Laura. “Headphones?” Lena asked.

Laura smiled. “It's a pair that has a mic on it so me, whoever is wearing the pair on the left side, Jonathan, and Peter can communicate...” she said.

Webby beamed. “That's so cool!”

Laura smiled and then pointed towards a circle of kids. “You better go get ready,” she said.

Lena and Webby nodded their heads and joined the circle. As they warmed up and sang through the beginning and closing song, more kids trickled in. Soon, with three minutes on the clock, all of the kids were in the circle.

“Alright! Get to where you need to be! You go on stage real soon! Do your best and remember to have fun!” Mrs. Raven said. “Now! GO!”

All the kids ran to get to the side of the stage they needed to be for the opening song. Lena stood on the right side of the stage. She took a deep breath and glanced over at Ava and Laura standing next to the panel of electrical stuff.

Ava looked up and met Lena's eyes. She smiled and waved.

“Break a leg!” Ava's voice said in Lena's head.

Lena jumped slightly but then relaxed and gave a thumbs up to Ava.

Quicker than Lena expected, the first few notes of the opening song rang through the auditorium and Lena quickly went onto the stage with the other kids on her side, her nerves slowly easing away.

~

Ava leaned against Laura as she let out a sigh of relief. She watched as the sword fight scene was coming to a close. Soon, Peter Pan would be taking Wendy and her brothers home and then they'd do the ending song. “It's over...” Ava whispered.

“This week went by both way too fast and way too slow...” Laura muttered.

“Tell me about it,” Ava said.

Laura glanced over at Ava. “You're fine right? If you wanna hide and take a nap, I can do the cotton candy,” she said.

Ava laughed. “You're just worried I'll charm everybody at the party...” she said.

“That's just some of the reason...” Laura said. She paused as she listened to something over the headset. “Jonathan says you shouldn't be near the cotton candy machine at all...”

“Tell Jonathan he can either eat the cotton candy I make or dance with me. His call...” Ava said. She stuck her tongue out towards Laura hoping that some how, though Jonathan was out in the house, he'd get the vibe that she was pointing her tongue at him.

“Jonathan, she's stick her tongue out at you...” Laura whispered flatly. She paused and hummed softly. “'Ava, he says neither. He doesn't trust you not to curse him...”

Ava mock gasped. “I don't curse. I just...play...” she whispered.

Laura forwarded Ava's message. “He says that's worse...”

Ava laughed. “Okay, ask him this. Does he trust me being unsupervised? Because face it, either I'm making cotton candy and being supervised by you or I'm running around the party not being supervised, unless he's dancing with me, which I'm then supervised by him...”

Laura laughed quietly. “Jonathan says none sounds good, but since he doesn't want to be cursed he's leaving you to me...”

Ava silently cheered. “Yes...”

Several of the children quickly made their way to the wings as the audience cheered. Ava met eyes with Lena and gave her a thumbs up.

“I'm so glad that we got that witch problem taken care of and no one had a melt down but me. Hopefully the mermaids aren't too scarred...” Ava muttered.

Laura folded her arms. “You know I wanted to help with that right?”

Ava looked back. “If it had been one witch, I would have included you, but there were three. Way too dangerous...”

Laura shoved Ava. “You know I have half these kids convinced I'm a vampire right?”

Ava snorted. “Still not sure how you managed that...”

Carl pushed Ava from him spot in line. “Shhhhh!”

Ava rolled her eyes. “You shush...” she whispered.

Carl smirked. “I can't shush, I have to go sing.”

“Then get in line you nerd,” Ava said as she pushed him back in line.

The kids quickly rushed back out to sing one last song.

Laura nudged Ava. “Jace says we can go find the cotton candy machine. Wanna go?”

Ava nodded. “Yeah, kids waiting for sweets are the worst...”

Laura unhooked the headset from her and looped it on the metal panel. She grabbed Ava's hand and they snuck back to the classroom.

~

Lena smiled when she felt the sun hit her face. The after party was being held outdoors since Mrs. Raven knew someone who had a bounce house company. Lena was suddenly wrapped in a Webby hug. “What's up Pink?”

“YOU DID SO GOOD!” Webby cheered.

Lena laughed. “I didn't have to learn a whole instrument in one week! Are you kidding? You did great also!”

Webby beamed and looked around. “What do you want to do first? I think the boys already ran towards one of the bounce houses. Oh there's Violet! VIOLET!” Webby was excitedly bouncing as she let go of Lena to wave at Violet.

Violet looked back from where she was talking to an older Saberwing Hummingbird and a Ruby Throat Hummingbird. She smiled and waved. “YOU WERE GREAT!” Violet shouted. The Ruby Throat Hummingbird motioned towards Webby and Lena. Violet nodded and then waved to the two hummingbirds. She then ran over to Lena and Webby. “Sorry, my dads wanted a picture and then I got caught up talking to them about how interesting the light booth is.”

Webby smiled. “We have to meet your dads before you leave!”

Violet shrugged and nodded her head. “If you want to, sure.”

Lena glanced around. “I want to eat some cotton candy. Ava's supposed to be helping with that,” she said.

There was a cry of surprise and they watched as a big chunk of cotton candy floated into the sky. “Found her!” Webby said cheerfully. The three girls ran in the direction of the school.

They found Ava, Laura, Jonathan, and Peter all surrounding a cotton candy machine. Ava had her hand hovering above the machine with a white cone in it. “So I just shove it in and spin it?”

“Or something...” Peter replied.

“Can't I just use magic to help?” Ava whined.

“'No because that'd be making it with your magic and you know how that ends...” Jonathan replied.

“So I get a couple children to do my biding. I don't see a downside...” Ava said with a shrug.

Jonathan set his hands in front of his mouth before tilting them forward towards Ava. “Children slavery is bad.”

Ava sighed. “Darn it...no magic...”

Laura patted Ava on the back. “You've got this!”

Webby ran over. “I want cotton candy! Please?”

Laura laughed. “Alright Ava, don't curse the kids!”

Ava rolled her eyes and stuck the cone in. She spun it a few times and handed Webby the first cotton candy. “There you go!”

Webby took the cotton candy and bit into it. “Iths good!”

Ava handed Lena the next and then the third to Violet. “That's nice to hear. I didn't screw it up...”

“I don't know how you can screw up cotton candy...” Lena said.

“Maybe by dunking it in water?” Violet said.

Lena shrugged.

There was a call and the triplets were over. “COTTON CANDY!” Huey cheered.

Ava laughed. “Alright! You were all really great out there!

Tthe kids all beamed at her. “Thank you!” They all said.

She quickly got the triplets each their own cotton candy. “So, you kiddos planning to come back next year? I promise no witches...well, I can't exactly promise it, but I'll try to catch it quicker...” Ava said.

Webby glanced towards Lena, who hummed in thought.

“Yeah, probably,” Lena said.

“Yeah! We all had fun,” Dewey said.

“Even with the witches!” Webby said.

“Yeah, I wasn't expecting a normal week at all. We as a family can't really do normal,” Louie replied.

Ava laughed. “Alright then! I'll be looking forwards to next year! Just warn me if something supernatural happens next year.”

There was a yell and the kids looked over towards Della, Scrooge, and Mrs. Beakley. Webby offered a wave towards them. The kids then turned towards Ava.

“Looks, like the family wants some photos! We'll see you later!” Webby said.

Ava held up a peace sign. “See you kiddos later.”

Laura, Jonathan, and Peter all waved as the kids ran back towards their family.

Della wrapped them all up in a hug. “You guys did so great out there!”

Mrs. Beakley patted Webby on the head. “You looked like you had a lot of fun!”

Scrooge smiled towards them as he held up a digital camera. “You're mom wants to get as many photos of your kids for Donald when he gets back!”

The kids all beamed with their cotton candy faces.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S DONE!
> 
> I don't know what I'm working on next but this is done now!
> 
> Thank you to all who stuck around and read this!!!


End file.
